CONSUMER PREFERENCES AS DRIVERS OF THE COMMON BEAN TRADE IN TANZANIA: A MARKETING PERSPECTIVE

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of bean grain quality characteristics on market price. The data was collected from retail markets in Tanzania. Hedonic pricing provides a statistical estimate of premiums and discounts. Implications for development of bean markets include: i) extension agents should identify cost-effective ways to educate producers on targeting urban market niches based on consumer preferences for varieties, ii) breeding for bruchid resistant beans and use of appropriate storage technologies would alleviate the problems of storage damage, and iii) requiring a portfolio of grain quality characteristics to fit consumer preferences in local markets.Beans, markets, consumer preferences, hedonic, storage, Tanzania

Profitable chemical-free cowpea storage technology for smallholder farmers in Africa: opportunities and challenges

Cowpea is the most economically and nutritionally important indigenous African grain legume, grown by millions of resource-poor farmers. It is a key cash crop in areas too dry to grow cotton or other export crops. Most of the over 3 million t of cowpea grain produced annually in West and Central Africa is grown on small farms. Storage is often identified as the key challenge for small scale cowpea growers. Many farmers sell cowpea grain at low harvest time prices rather than risk losses by bruchids during storage. Some traditional methods are effective for small quantities (e.g., 10 kg), but are difficult to scale up. Some effective storage chemicals are available, but they are regularly misused by farmers and merchants. The Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) Project is addressing these problems through promotion of hermetic storage in triple layer sacks which have an outer layer of woven polypropylene and two liners of 80 μ high-density polyethylene. Village demonstrations with more than 45, 000 PICS sacks have shown the technology to be effective. Good quality affordable sacks have been produced by manufacturers in Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali. Over the past three years more than one million sacks have been produced and sold. Despite the success with the outreach activities and the farmer adoption, the challenge remains to develop sustainable sack distribution networks. Issues identified include reluctance of wholesalers to order sacks due to risk associated with a new product, inability of wholesalers to develop effective distribution networks due to difficulties with enforcing contracts, and limited access to capital. The PICS project is exploring new ways to address some of these issues, including using non-traditional distribution systems for PICS sacks such as agro-dealers networks, and adapting distribution systems that have worked for cell phones and other products. Keywords: Cowpea, Bruchids, Hermetic storage, Supply chain, West and Central Afric

CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS ALONG THE COWPEA VALUE CHAIN IN NIGERIA, GHANA AND MALI

The production and trade of cowpea (Vigna Uniculata), called “blackeyed peas” in the US, are a growing business for farmers and merchants serving the rapidly expanding urban areas of West and Central Africa. Cowpea fits the needs of the urban poor. It is an inexpensive source of protein that does not require refrigeration. A better understanding of consumer preferences for cowpea is essential to market development. The main objective of the study was to determine the cowpea grain quality characteristics that command a price premium or provoke a discount in Ghanaian, Malian and Nigerian markets. Specifically, the study looked at the impact of the grain size, texture, color, eye color, and bruchid-damaged grains on cowpea market prices. The data for the study were collected from six markets in Ghana; four markets were in the capital city of Accra and two markets in Kumasi. In Mali, two markets were surveyed, Marché de Sabalibougou and Marché Medine. In Nigeria three markets were surveyed, Iddo in Lagos; Monday, in Maiduguri; and Dawanau in Kano. Hedonic pricing methods provide a statistical estimate of premiums and discounts. The results of the study indicated that cowpea consumers in Ghana, Mali and Nigeria are willing to pay a premium for large cowpea grains. Cowpea consumers discount grains with storage damage from the very first bruchid hole. The impact of price on other cowpea quality characteristics such as skin color and texture, and eye color varies locally. Implications for development of the cowpea value chain include: 1) breeders and cowpea production researchers should identify cost-effective ways to increase cowpea grain size because larger grain size is almost universally preferred, and 2) entomologists and storage experts should develop and transfer improved storage technologies to reduce damage discounts, and 3) serving local markets requires a portfolio of grain skin color, eye color and skin texture combinations.Cowpeas market chains, consumer preference, hedonic price analysis

Economics of field size and shape for autonomous crop machines

Field size and shape constrain spatial and temporal management of agriculture with implications for farm profitability, field biodiversity and environmental performance. Large, conventional equipment struggles to farm small, irregularly shaped fields efficiently. The study hypothesized that autonomous crop machines would make it possible to farm small, non-rectangular fields profitably, thereby preserving field biodiversity and other environmental benefits. Using the experience of the Hands Free Hectare (HFH) demonstration project, this study developed algorithms to estimate field times (h/ha) and field efficiency (%) subject to field size and shape in grain-oil-seed farms of the United Kingdom using four different equipment sets. Results show that field size and shape had a substantial impact on technical and economic performance of all equipment sets, but autonomous machines were able to farm small 1 ha rectangular and non-rectangular fields profitably. Small fields with equipment of all sizes and types required more time, but for HFH equipment sets field size and shape had least impact. Solutions of HFH linear programming model show that autonomous machines decreased wheat production cost by €15/ton to €29/ton and €24/ton to €46/ton for small rectangular and non-rectangular fields respectively, but larger 112 kW and 221 kW equipment with human operators was not profitable for small fields. Sensitivity testing shows that the farms using autonomous machines adapted easily and profitably to scenarios with increasing wage rates and reduced labour availability, whilst farms with conventional equipment struggled. Technical and economic feasibility in small fields imply that autonomous machines could facilitate biodiversity and improve environmental performance

Modelling stochastic crop response to fertilisation when carry-over matters

Soils in a large part of Niger's agricultural area are sandy and very low in nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and organic matter. This low soil fertility combined with low and erratic rainfall constitutes a severe constraint on food cropping in the area. Although agronomists have advised chemical fertiliAtion as a means of improving soil fertility, little fertilizer has been used in this area of the world. The economic management of soil fertility in the agricultural area of Niger is analyzed using a dynamic model of farmer decision-making under uncertainty. The model is based on agronomic principles of plant growth and accounts for the carry over of P, an immobile nutrient. At current input prices, a soil P content of at least 14 pmm is found to be desirable. This target is above the natural soil fertility level of about 3 ppm. It can be maintained with a moderate annual application (12 kg P2O5 ha-1) of simple superphosphate. Results also suggests that returns to N fertilization are too low and variable to warrant the use of this inpu

Do insect and mold damage affect maize prices in Africa? Evidence from Malawi

Economic losses to stored grain can potentially come from both quantity losses and quality losses in the form of price discounts for damage from insects and mold. This article uses choice experiments conducted with physical samples of maize to estimate discounts for damaged grain among maize traders in Malawi. Using the Equality Constrained Latent Class method to correct for non-attendance to the price attribute, we find that traders place a statistically and economically significant discount on insect-damaged maize. We estimate that a 1% increase in maize damage reduces the price of maize by 2.8% to 3.6%, depending on damage level. We discuss the implications of these results for farmers’ incentives to adopt improved storage technologies that can reduce post-harvest losses

Report from the conference, ‘identifying obstacles to applying big data in agriculture’

Data-centric technology has not undergone widespread adoption in production agriculture but could address global needs for food security and farm profitability. Participants in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) funded conference, “Identifying Obstacles to Applying Big Data in Agriculture,” held in Houston, TX, in August 2018, defined detailed scenarios in which on-farm decisions could benefit from the application of Big Data. The participants came from multiple academic fields, agricultural industries and government organizations and, in addition to defining the scenarios, they identified obstacles to implementing Big Data in these scenarios as well as potential solutions. This communication is a report on the conference and its outcomes. Two scenarios are included to represent the overall key findings in commonly identified obstacles and solutions: “In-season yield prediction for real-time decision-making”, and “Sow lameness.” Common obstacles identified at the conference included error in the data, inaccessibility of the data, unusability of the data, incompatibility of data generation and processing systems, the inconvenience of handling the data, the lack of a clear return on investment (ROI) and unclear ownership. Less common but valuable solutions to common obstacles are also noted

Modeling local and global spatial correlation in field‐scale experiments

Precision agriculture has renewed the interest of farmers and researchers to conduct on‐farm planned comparisons and researchers with respect to field‐scale research. Cotton yield monitor data collected on‐the‐go from planned field‐scale on‐farm experiments can be used to make improved decisions if analyzed appropriately. When farmers and researchers compare treatments implemented at larger block designs, treatment edge effects and spatial externalities need to be considered so that results are not biased. Spatial analysis methods are compared for field‐scale research using site‐specific data, paying due attention to local and global patterns of spatial correlation. Local spatial spillovers are explicitly modeled by spatial statistical techniques that led to improved farm management decisions in combination with the limited replication strip trial data farmers currently collect

Impact of Automated Guidance for Mechanical Control of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds in Corn

This study evaluated the feasibility of reintroducing mechanical weed control as an alter-native for herbicide- resistance weed infestations. The production practice tested included row cultivation with a separate banded spray application using high- accuracy automated guidance systems. A range of ground speeds were tested for the row cultivation opera-tion, each with a different per acre cost and timeliness penalty. A typical eastern Corn Belt farm with a rotation of corn and soybean served as the base for the linear pro-gramming model. It was found that if the farmer was willing to reintroduce tillage, row cultivation conducted at higher operating speeds in conjunction with separate banded application could be justified under a range of relatively inexpensive herbicide costs as low as $7 per acre. When effective herbicides were relatively expensive at$30 per acre, the optimal decision would be to use row cultivation and reduce herbicides via banding. At faster ground speeds, the majority of hours devoted to row cultivation shifted to ear-lier time periods so that yield penalties were avoided