Thesis Re-print: Does Selling Fruits or Vegetables - Department of ...

The question then emerges of what type of smallholder farmer is able to
successfully exploit the opportunities provided by horticultural marketing, and whether
these farmers look different from those able to successfully exploit marketing
opportunities for other crops. Two recent analyses of the determinants of marketing
behavior of Mozambican smallholder farmers highlight the importance of personal
household characteristics and private assets in driving households’ ability to participate in
markets (Boughton, et al. 2007, Mather, Boughton and Jayne 2011) . These and other
analyses are reviewed in chapter three. In this thesis, these two papers are built upon and
extended by (a) examining a new crop group – fresh produce – that few if any authors
have yet examined, and (b) testing an enhanced number of variables, especially new
variables related to household location-specific characteristics. Given the differing
characteristics of fresh produce compared to most other food staple crops and cash crops,
explained above, it is hypothesized that the determinants of fresh produce marketing will
differ from those of these other crops in the following ways:
Land holdings will be substantially less important in explaining market
participation, though it may remain important in explaining the value of sales;
Controlling for land-holdings, a household’s being female-headed will continue to
have a negative impact on market participation and on the value of sales. This
impact is, however, likely to be the result of other factors correlated with having a
female household head that may not be perfectly controlled for in the analysis,
such as ownership of productive assets and access to capital;
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