Soybean production has been widely promoted in sub-Saharan Africa as a means of improving rural household income. Numerous studies point to poor adoption levels, low yield levels, and limited profitability among smallholder farmers. Poor performance of soybean among smallholders generates numerous hypotheses as to the root causes. One logical cause is low prices, which result from anecdotes from the field, especially among producers and policymakers. In this study, the first of its kind that we are aware of, analyzes regional soybean prices over time across six key growing and commercial regions of Ghana. We employ cointegration and multivariate vector error correction model to measure the level of international and inter-market integration and performance. The results show regional and international integration as well as Granger Causality results consistent with the local supply-demand context. Specifically, the international market Granger causes Kumasi, Bolgatanga, and Wa markets, while the Tamale and Kumasi, serve as the leading production and demand markets, respectively. The results of the study provide evidence that prices do perform well in Ghana and are not a major source of weak adoption and low levels of profitability among smallholder soybean farmers.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Assessing the performance of regional soybean prices in Ghana
Edward Martey Related information
aEconomist, CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box TL 52, Tamale, Ghana.
, Nicolas Gatti Related informationbGraduate student, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 318 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
, Peter Goldsmith Related informationcProfessor, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 318 Mumford Hall, 1301 W. Gregory, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
*Corresponding author: pgoldsmi@illinois. edu
*Corresponding author: pgoldsmi@illinois.
International Food and Agribusiness Management Review: 23
(2)- Pages: 267 - 282
Published Online: February 06, 2020
Abstract
Keywords: soybean, cointegration, price transmission, time series, vector auto regression
-
Caspar Krampe and Adar Fridman
-
Pablo Mac Clay and Roberto Feeney
-
Yiwu Zeng, Fu Jia, Li Wan and Hongdong Guo
-
Bo Hou, Eugene Burgos Mutuc, Linhai Wu, Hsiu-Yu Lee and Kun-Hwa Lu
-
Alisher Tleubayev, Ihtiyor Bobojonov, Taras Gagalyuk, Emma García Meca and Thomas Glauben
-
Yiwu Zeng, Fu Jia, Li Wan and Hongdong Guo
-
Dieisson Pivoto, Bradford Barham, Paulo Dabdab Waquil, Cristian Rogério Foguesatto, Vitor Francisco Dalla Corte, Debin Zhang and Edson Talamini
-
Yuying Liu, Wanglin Ma, Alan Renwick and Xinhong Fu
-
Hao Fu, Cuiping Zhao, Chuanxing Cheng and Hengyun Ma
-
Zekarias Shumeta and Marijke D’Haese