Resource information
Africa has great potential for
agriculture. Although international commodity prices have
been buoyant, Africa’s supply response seems to be weak. A
variety of constraints may exist. Using the case of
Tanzania, the paper examines the impact of market
connectivity, domestic and international, on farmers’ crop
choices. It is shown that the international market
connectivity, measured by transport costs to the maritime
port, is important for farmers to choose export crops, such
as cotton and tobacco. Internal connectivity to the domestic
market is also found to be important for growing food crops,
such as maize and rice. Among other inputs, access to
irrigation and improved seed availability are also important
factors in the crop choices of farmers. The size of land
area is one constraint to promote the crop shift. The paper
also reports the finding that farmers are not using market
prices effectively in their choice of crop, even after the
endogeneity of local prices is taken into account.
