Over the last decade, governments in eastern and southern Africa have become increasingly involved in grain marketing via strategic reserves and marketing boards. Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia all have one or both of these entities, and their level of involvement in...

This study examines how extreme weather in the context of on-going economic shocks influence regional inequality and polarization within Mozambique. Utilizing satellite-based estimates of rainfall that we spatially analyze within a GIS, we establish a 16-year rainfall climatology and calculate...

In Zambia like in many other developing countries, the agricultural sector is highly dependent on rain-fed production and therefore vulnerable to weather shocks. Maize is the primary staple crop in Zambia, and is widely grown by smallholder farmers throughout the country, with a dual...

This paper traces the trajectories of successful commercial smallholders operating under differing sets of market institutions. Analysis focuses on maize, cotton, and horticulture, three widely marketed crops with strikingly different market institutions. Maize receives intensive government...

In the late 1990s, several governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) embarked on various market reforms to improve commodity market performance. The success of such market reforms depends partly on the strength of the transmission of price signals between spatially separated markets and between...

The 2012 harvest was, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock national food balance sheet estimates, a major surplus production season. However, by November the same year, Zambia started experiencing widespread maize meal shortages and skyrocketing maize meal prices. Responding to...

Reports (in French) on Stakeholders' Market Information Needs to Engage in Regional Trade. Guinea

The 2005 – 2006 marketing campaign was difficult because of the drought that occurred in all countries in the region. As a result, the price of sorghum, millet, maize and rice soared. State actions to improve cereals supply through tax-exempt rice imports did not achieve the expected outcomes....

Reports (in French) on Stakeholders' Market Information Needs to Engage in Regional Trade. Senegal

Reports (in French) on Stakeholders' Market Information Needs to Engage in Regional Trade. West Africa synthesis report.