Abstract
It is common for farmers, civil society organizations, government officials and journalists to accuse traders of ‘exploitative behavior’ and ‘price gouging’ in the post-harvest season. Yet, the evidence on which such accusations are made is largely anecdotal, as government efforts to collect and report farmgate prices are often patchy and inconsistent. In this note we present a new, innovative and relatively inexpensive method for monitoring the price that farmers are actually paid and the extent to which these conform to minimum farmgate prices. This crowdsourcing method is suited to low-income countries, where internet connections are unstable but mobile phones are common. The application which is demonstrated for three harvest seasons in Malawi has shown that the vast majority of Malawian farmers sell their maize, pigeon peas and soybeans at substantially less that the minimum farmgate prices (MFG) for these crops.
Presenters:
- Bob Baulch, Professor of Economics, RMIT University, Vietnam
- Aubrey Jolex, Research Analyst, IFPRI Malawi
Date & Time: June 23, 2021 @2:00pm - 4:00pm
Individuals attending this event may be audio taped, videotaped, or photographed during the course of a meeting, and by attending grant permission for their likenesses and the content of their comments, if any, to be broadcast, webcast, published, or otherwise reported or recorded. Questions? Please contact IFPRI-Lilongwe@cgiar.org
