Two new publications are now available by IFPRI’s Nigeria Strategy Support Program (NSSP) - NSSP Working Paper No. 54 (please see link here to download the paper) & accompanying NSSP Policy Note No. 49 (please see link here to download the policy note), entitled “Grain storage and marketplace characteristics in Kebbi state, Nigeria”, both co-authored by Patrick Hatzenbuehler, George Mavrotas, Mohammed Abubakar Maikasuwa, Abdulrahaman Aliyu and Amina Bashir.
While there are many aspects to agricultural market modernization that are linked and mutually affect and reinforce each other, the authors argue that investment in Nigeria in physical market infrastructure, such as storage units, remains relatively neglected, especially in rural areas. They examine the transactions cost, spatial market equilibrium, and industrial policy literatures to provide a conceptual context for understanding how and why investments in physical market infrastructure can lower transactions costs for traders and for farmers, and, thus, increase market participation. They also implemented a marketplace characteristics survey in Kebbi state, an agriculture-based state in northwestern Nigeria, to determine whether further investments in marketplace infrastructure are needed. They found that some markets, especially those in rural areas, lacked storage units and communications technologies. Hence, traders and farmers in those markets operate in a challenging environment. They also stress that investments such as these are likely to be more successful in the long-run and have more immediate effects on local agricultural development than would national initiatives. Local governments have better knowledge of local conditions and can better design initial investments to strengthen markets and then implement follow-on initiatives required to meet needs that arise as market conditions evolve.
These two publications are part of the output of the Feed the Future Nigeria Agricultural Policy Project, a joint effort between IFPRI-NSSP and Michigan State University which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID/Nigeria).
