World Agroforestry Centre - Transforming Lives and Landscapes

Making the Most of Markets

Poverty in Africa is predominantly a rural phenomenon, with women and those living in marginal agricultural areas being hardest hit. Helping them to gain better access to the market would help to reduce poverty and raise incomes. Recent research in East Africa, funded by the Ford Foundation, provides new insights into which commodities and crops are providing the greatest benefits for marginal groups.

An analysis of farming families’ access to markets in Kenya and Uganda was undertaken by scientists from the Tegemeo Institute of Egerton University, Kenya, Makerere University, Uganda, and the World Agroforestry Centre. The study – ‘Participation in Markets by Women, the Poor and Other Marginalised Groups in Rural Kenya and Uganda’ – used nationally representative data that had been previously gathered from 900 households in Uganda and 1500 households in Kenya between 2000 and 2007. The data covered everything from demographics to incomes, from farming practices to the ownership of transport, from the distance it took to travel to markets to access to credit.

“We found that there was a high level of diversification, with farming families growing a wide variety of crops, and this applied to women and the poor as much as it did to men and the better off,” explains Dagmar Mithoefer of the World Agroforestry Centre. “However, marginal groups tend to sell a lower share of their produce, in both Kenya and Uganda.”

The research suggests that marginal groups have better access to some markets than others. In Kenya, it seems that poor households were improving their incomes by producing and selling fruits, bananas and vegetables in the local markets. Indeed, 88–90% of women were growing fruit, mangoes being the most popular, and they were almost as likely to sell their fruit as men. Up to 95% were growing vegetables, and were only slightly less likely to sell them than men. Taking the poor in general, 85% were growing fruit, 90% vegetables and 75% bananas, and they were selling approximately a quarter of what they grew. Indeed, more Kenyan households were selling fruit than maize, the major food crop.

In Uganda, the most promising market-oriented strategy for improving incomes involved the sale of bananas and dairy produce.

Many farmers, including poorer households, were also diversifying their livestock portfolios. In Kenya, the percentage of poor households keeping sheep and goats increased from 45% to 52% between 2000 and 2007 and the number of poor selling poultry increased from 7% to 27% over the same period of time.

So what are the implications for the investment policies of donors, governments and non-governmental organisations? Frank Place, an Impact Assessment Advisor at the World Agroforestry Centre, warns against easy generalisations. “The key findings in Kenya and Uganda concur in some areas, but differ in others,” he says. “This indicates that there is no single approach for enhancing market participation by poor, the women and other marginal groups.” Nevertheless, there are certain promising commodities – for example, fruit in Kenya, vegetables and milk in both Kenya and Uganda.

The research also revealed which factors do most to help marginal groups boost their participation in markets. “Group membership is very important,” says Mithoefer. “Regardless of whether you look at women, the poor or those living in remote areas, people do better when they belong to an organised group.” Another key factor is the ownership of transport and communication equipment, such as mobile phones. These, too, help to improve access to the market

“Group membership helps marginalised communities boost their participation in markets”

Making the most of Kenya’s mangoes

During the 1970s, Jürgen Griesbach, a German development worker, introduced dozens of exotic mango varieties to Kenya from as far afield as Brazil and India. In those days it was much easier to import germplasm. He established orchards at research stations run by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and on prison farms in Central and Eastern Kenya, where there was space and free labour. Staff and inmates learnt to graft mangoes and to date, the prisons still supply improved varieties to local farmers.

“It is largely because of Griesbach’s work that mangoes are now so widely grown in Kenya,” explains Katya Kehlenbeck, a scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre. “However, their full potential has yet to be realised.” A pilot study by Kehlenbeck and her colleague Emanuela Rohde has provided the first significant assessment of the varieties available in Kenya and the problems which are holding the industry back. Their findings are based on detailed surveys at three KARI research stations, five prison farms and six individual farms, where they found a total of 50 varieties. The researchers also interviewed mango traders and exporters.

“We found that there was a serious lack of knowledge about which varieties were suitable for which agro-ecological conditions,” says Kehlenbeck. “There is also an urgent need to develop early and late season varieties, since around 50% of the crop goes to waste during the short harvesting season.” Furthermore, poor quality fruit and the use of banned pesticides mean that Kenyan exporters are unable to tap the potentially lucrative European market.

The researchers have identified a number of measures which could be taken to improve mango productivity in Kenya. Among other things, there is an urgent need to evaluate and characterise available rootstock and varieties in order to select the most suitable ones. The researchers also suggest that Kenya could benefit from importing new varieties that have been developed in major mango-producing countries such as India. However, there are some considerable bureaucratic hurdles to overcome, as the days of legally transporting seedlings and saplings in suitcases are long gone.