Seasonal participation in maize markets in Zambia: Do agricultural input subsidies and gender matter?
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Seasonal participation in maize markets in Zambia: Do agricultural input subsidies and gender matter? Franklin Simtowe 1
&
Hugo De Groote 1
Received: 4 September 2019 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This paper uses data from 1128 households drawn from 35 districts, three agroecological zones and five provinces in Zambia to explore the influence of gender and other parameters on seasonal maize market participation. We apply a multivariate regression and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition technique to identify determinants of seasonal market participation and to decompose the differences in market participation outcomes between male headed and female headed households, respectively. About 10% of the households were ‘selling low and buying high’ which, through the supply enhancement effect, fertiliser subsidies and credit, enhanced maize selling soon after harvest while reducing the propensity to purchase in the lean season, an indication of the positive effect on food self-sufficiency. Significant market participation gaps were observed between male and female headed households in both seasons, with more female headed households purchasing maize soon after harvest and less of it in the lean season than their male counterparts. These differences were attributable to endowment effects. The study recommends policies that promote equitable access to production resources, such as the land, in order to reduce the gaps in market participation between men and women and for them to take advantage of the inter-seasonal maize price movements. Keywords Maize . Seasonal marketing . Gender . Input subsidies . Zambia
1 Introduction Development experts understand why small farmers stand to benefit from greater engagement with markets, both for increasing output for sale, as well as greater access to inputs and services that can raise productivity. Markets allow farmers to benefit from increased production by selling the surplus, allowing them to get extra income, which can be used to purchase other food and non-food items, including inputs such as improved seed, fertiliser, chemicals and machinery for increased productivity. Some literature (Heltberg and Tarp 2002; Pingali 2007) contends that such benefits at a household level have a positive impact on economic growth. However,
* Franklin Simtowe [email protected] Hugo De Groote [email protected] 1
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), ICRAF House, United Nations Avenue – Gigiri, P.O. Box 1041-00621, Nairobi, Kenya
smallholder farmers are not homogenous, and therefore, some may face barriers to participation in these markets. Sibande et al. (2017), Alene et al. (2008) and Barrett (2008) summarise that such barriers include poor infrastructure; high transaction costs of marketing; large input requirements in the form of land, chemicals, fertilizer and processing; and information asymmetry, among others. There is a three-fold motivation to this paper: i) the impact of seasonality and type or market participatio
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