MALAWI AGRICULTURAL COMMODITY EXCHANGE AND SPATIAL RICE MARKET INTEGRATION

There has been a growing debate regarding the role of the government and the effects of agricultural policies and interventions on agricultural markets. This therefore prompted this study to analyse the role of Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange (MACE) project as a market-enhancing intervention on aggregate market performance in Malawi using cointegration methods. MACE was introduced to improve agricultural market functioning through market information system. The study specifically examined the extent of spatial rice market integration, causality relationships among spatially separated markets and the dynamic adjustments of rice price series. The study used monthly price series data from 1994 to 2007 obtained from the ministry of agriculture. The data was divided into three sets; full sample, Pre-MACE and Post-MACE. Stationarity tests were done and it was noted that Salima and Bangula for full sample and Chitipa for Pre and Post-MACE price series were stationary in levels implying that these markets did not share the long-term trend with the major urban centres in Malawi in their respective samples. Cointegration results have shown that spatial rice market integration in Malawi is on average marginally improving. Compared to Pre-MACE period, cointegration and interdependence among markets appeared to be increasing during the Post-MACE era. Cointegration has also revealed that rice markets have been operating as a unified market system over the period of study. However, the study left out other factors affecting market integration due to financial and time constraints hence this improvement can not be fully accredited to MACE intervention. Nevertheless, since the aggregate picture observed in this study is an improvement of market integration the study recommends a promotion of MACE intervention to reach even more remote areas. The project needs to consider collecting and disseminating other market information such as trade flows, transaction costs and transfer costs. The study also recommends that further studies on market integration should take care of other structural determinants of market integration such as marketing infrastructure e.g. transportation, government policies and should consider application of the threshold autoregressive models (catering for transaction costs).Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Productivity impact of drought tolerant maize varieties under rainfall stress in Malawi: A continuous treatment approach

Drought tolerant (DT) maize varieties have received massive support in sub-Saharan Africa because of their potential to protect smallholder farmers against drought-related maize yield losses. Using four waves of household farm panel data from six districts in Malawi, we examine the impact heterogeneity of this technology on maize productivity using a continuous treatment approach. We find strong evidence of positive correlation between maize yield and adoption of DT maize varieties. On average, an increase by one hectare in the area allocated to DT varieties increases maize yield by 547 Kg/ha representing a 44% increase from the average maize yield of 1,254 Kg/ha for our sample. Our findings give evidence that DT maize technology has potential to protect smallholder farmers against drought-related production losses. Policies that promote increased allocation of maize area to DT maize hold potential to enhance food security. Smallholder farmers especially in drought-prone areas should be encouraged to allocate at least one-third of the maize plot to DT varieties while breeders continue with the efforts of breeding a DT variety that is not only drought tolerant but also adapted to all weather conditions. More importantly, the government should ensure provision of timely ex ante weather information to guide farmers on decision-making with respect to maize varietal choices.publishedVersio

The Role of ICT-based Market Information Services in Spatial Food Market Integration: The Case of Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange

The government of Malawi in 2004 initiated an ICT-based Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange (MACE), a market information service project, to improve access by farmers to market information. MACE was intended to improve the efficiency of agricultural markets as part of the strategy to improve food security. This study uses quantitative methods to examine whether MACE has contributed to efficiency of rice markets in Malawi. It especially tests if MACE has contributed to spatial integration of rice markets. As hypothesized, the study finds that the tendency of rice prices to move together in spatially separated markets has significantly increased since the implementation of MACE. It concludes that ICT-based market information services improve the efficiency with which agricultural markets perform. The study discusses implications of this finding for policy.ICT-based intervention, market information service, market integration, rice, Malawi, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

How WEIRD are student samples? Lessons based on the trust game in Malawi

We have used the standard trust game on a random sample of university students (N=764) and a random sample of rural residents (N=834) in Malawi. The study identifies social preference types (Bauer, Chytilov´a, & Pertold-Gebicka, 2014; Fehr, Gl¨atzle-R¨utzler, & Sutter, 2013) and how these relate to variations in trust and trustworthiness based on the standard trust game (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995). The games are framed as within-class and within-university for students and as within-village and within-district for the rural sample. Many previous studies have found students to represent a lower bound in experimental studies of pro-social, trust, and trustworthiness behavior compared to broader population samples. Contrary to this, we found that trust and trustworthiness were significantly higher among university students than among villagers in rural communities in Malawi. We decomposed the trust and trustworthiness to investigate the relative importance of alternative explanations for their variation and to explain the unexpected gap in trust and trustworthiness between the student and rural samples. We were able to explain most of the gap for trustworthiness and about half of the gap for trust. Factors contributing significantly to the variation in trustworthiness were social preference type, reciprocity norm, age, and gender. Trust and trustworthiness varied systematically across social preference types. Altruistic and egalitarian types were more common among the students than in the rural population, and the students also demonstrated stronger moral obligations to reciprocate in the game. On average, students and rural respondents were too optimistic about the expected returns in the trust game; students were more optimistic than rural subjects on average, and expectations influenced trust investments. Risk tolerance also enhanced trust investments; students were slightly more risk tolerant than rural subjects. Women were found to be less trusting and less trustworthy than men, and there was a larger share of women in the rural sample. There were only modest gains in trust and trustworthiness in the within-class vs. within-university and the within-village vs. within-district frames

The Predictive Power of Luck: Luck and Risk-Taking in a Repeated Risky Investment Game

Can luck predict risk-taking behavior in games of chance? Economists have not widely studied this issue although overconfidence, optimism-, and pessimism bias have received substantial attention in recent years. In this study, we investigate how good and bad luck outcomes in a simple repeated risky investment game affect risk-taking behavior in the following rounds of the same game where the outcome (luck) in the game is determined by the throwing of a die after each round. The outcome of the previous round's die-throw is known when the subjects decide how risky their next choice in the game will be. A sample of 718 university students is used as subjects in the game in a recursive within-subject design. The results demonstrate a strong impact of luck on risk-taking behavior that lasts not only to the next round but also into another two follow-up rounds, with cumulative effects. A time delay of 1-2 months between Round 1 and Round 2 did not wipe out the luck effect and it was only slightly weaker than the luck effect from Round 2 to Rounds 3 and 4 that followed immediately after Round 2. Many recent studies have shown that risk preferences respond to recent shocks. This study indicates that random shocks such as luck in previous games (states of nature) influence risk-taking behavior. Our study suggests that the causal mechanism goes through subjective beliefs in luck based on past experiences that influence expectations and thereby risk-taking behavior

Knowledge, beliefs, perceptions, and behavior related to the corona (COVID-19) pandemic among university students in Malawi

This study is based on a survey of 764 students at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Lilongwe, Malawi. It aims to provide evidence on the extent of exposure to the pandemic among university students, their knowledge and beliefs related to the corona virus and the ways they protect themselves against getting infected, the sources of information that they rely on, and other factors influencing their knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. The study was undertaken in the period of February-March 2022 during which the fourth wave of the pandemic in the country took place and in this period the omicron variant of the virus dominated. We investigate factors associated with the extent of knowledge about the corona virus and COVID risk perceptions, information updating behavior, preferences for alternative protective measures, especially vaccination and use of facemasks. We also assessed beliefs about the effects of vaccination, trust in vaccines, and passive and active demand for vaccination. Finally, we investigate facemask use intensity and factors influencing the likelihood of infection and COVID-19 disease based on subjective self-reported experiences

Religion, perceptions, and behavior during the corona/COVID- 19 pandemic among university students in Malawi

This study investigates the covid risk perceptions, information updating behavior related to the pandemic, use of protective measures, especially facemasks, and the demand for vaccines among university students in Malawi. In particular, the study focuses on how religion and belief in prayer as a protective device against covid-19 are affecting perceptions and behavior related to the pandemic. Our findings are from a stratified random sample of 764 students from 48 classes spread across different disciplines and study years for both undergraduate and postgraduate. One-tenth of the students believed that prayer was their most important measure to protect themselves against the pandemic. Students belonging to the Seventh Day Adventists (Baptist) and Pentecostal religions perceived the covid risk to be significantly lower than other students. Students that considered prayer to be the most important protective device also perceived the covid risk to be lower than others; and updated themselves significantly less frequently about the status of the pandemic than other students. Whereas students that perceived their personal health to be at risk updated themselves more frequently about the pandemic. The information updating frequency related to the pandemic and covid risk perceptions were positively correlated with facemask use, including facemask use in church. Those who believed in prayer as a protective device were using facemasks less frequently. Students belonging to the Seventh Day Adventists and Pentecostals were less likely to use facemasks in church. These two student groups represent close to 30% of our sample; and these two groups are less likely to have tried to get vaccinated or having gotten vaccinated. These two groups are therefore at higher risk themselves in future corona waves and may also, due to their beliefs and behavior enhance the spread of the virus. Our findings may be useful for targeting efforts to promote more corona safe behavior

Anthropogenic Land Use Change and Adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Compelling evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) shows that Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has a positive impact on agricultural productivity. However, the uptake of CSA remains low, which is related to anthropogenic, or human-related, decisions about CSA and agricultural land use. This paper assesses households’ decisions to allocate agricultural land to CSA technologies across space and over time. We use the state-contingent theory, mixed methods, and mixed data sources. While agricultural land is increasing, forest land is decreasing across countries in SSA. The results show that household decisions to use CSA and the extent of agricultural land allocation to CSA remain low with a negative trend over time in SSA. Owned land and accessing land through rental markets are positively associated with allocating land to CSA technologies, particularly where land pressure is high. Regarding adaptation, experiencing rainfall shocks is significantly associated with anthropogenic land allocation to CSA technologies. The country policy assessment further supports the need to scale up CSA practices for adaptation, food security, and mitigation. Therefore, scaling up CSA in SSA will require that agriculture-related policies promote land tenure security and land markets while promoting climate-smart farming for food security, adaptation, and mitigation

The Corona pandemic among university students in Malawi

This study provides the initial survey data from a sample of 764 students at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), Lilongwe, Malawi. It aims to provide evidence on the extent of exposure to the pandemic among university students, their knowledge and beliefs related to the corona virus and the ways to protect oneself against getting infected, the sources of information that the students rely on, and other factors influencing their knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. The study was undertaken in the period of February-March 2022 during which the fourth wave of the pandemic in the country took place and in this period the omicron variant of the virus dominated. The result of the study shows that 17.5% of the students reported that they thought they had been infected by the corona virus. But only 23.9% of these had tested themselves for being infected and 27.2% of the students had taken a COVID-19 vaccine. Among those not vaccinated, 42.5% would like to get vaccinated, 21.9% are unsure and the remaining 35.6% would not like to get the vaccine. Astra Zeneca (47.6%) and Johnson & Johnson (53.3%) are the dominating vaccines used. Most of (95.2%) the students stated that they tried to avoid getting infected by the corona virus during the most recent wave of the pandemic. The use of facemasks was considered most important way to avoid getting infected, followed by distancing, handwashing and avoiding crowded places. Few gave priority to avoiding handshakes and avoiding visiting old people and relatives or reduced the number of contact persons. This could be related to the social setup in Malawi, which revolves around handshakes and visiting family members compared to the global north where handshakes are less common

Final technical report of eARN Africa Project / eAgriculture Research Network : effectiveness of ICT-based interventions in linking African farmers to markets

Attempts to improve smallholder farmer access to efficient markets have recently shifted to ICT-based interventions. ICT-based market information services help reduce transaction costs in most of the study countries through: search and screening costs (easier to find a seller/buyer, and compare prices in distant markets); negotiation costs (costs of agreeing on the terms of exchange); and monitoring costs (costs of following up on the transaction arrangements). The eARN project contributed towards an ICT in Agriculture e-source book published by the World Bank titled: “ICT in Agriculture: Connecting smallholders to markets, networks and institutions.” eARN also supported and mentored participating researchers