RA 00048.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

Grain Marketing in the
West African Semi-Arid Tropics
J. R. Sherman and I. Ouedraogo*
The Sahelian drought of 1968-73 aggravated and
drew world attention to the already precarious
nature of this region's food situation. Nutritional
and caloric deficiencies plague the people of this
area (90% of whom are rural). Production of
sorghum and millet, the dietary staples, is regionally
uneven and generally of a subsistence nature.
Transportation is difficult and costly and storage,
at all but the village level, generally inefficient.
Experts agree, however, that food self-sufficiency
is an attainable goal. All aspects of the food
system, production, marketing, distribution, and
storage are implicated in achieving it.
Considerable research has been done and
continues on means to increase production of the
principal food crops. It focuses on such technical
aspects as changing the cultivation techniques
and using improved varieties of seed for increasing
yield. Founded in the belief that prices, acting
as market signals, also affect the quantity produced,
policy makers have been interested in the
marketing behavior of peasants and the functioning
of grain markets. In response to these
concerns, research has been done on different
aspects of the grain marketing systems of the
West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT), the
Sahelian countries.
The purpose of this paper is to put into
perspective what is known about these marketing
systems and to make recommendations for the
direction of future research in this area. The major
conclusions are that marketing research must
* Center for Research on Economic Development,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109,
USA; and Department of Agricultural Economics,
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
48824, USA, respectively.
take into account the regional diversities of the
national marketing networks and consider marketing
as one part of the food system. From this
perspective it can identify important constraints to
improving the efficiency of this system and
respond better to the needs of policy makers.
We begin with a descripition of marketing
arrangements, including a summary of the major
marketing channels. This is followed by a review
of the findings of marketing studies done in the
WASAT. We draw two major conclusions which
are supported by these studies and reflect the
authors' personal experience in this area. These
conclusions suggest the major issues for marketing
research in the 1980s and a methodological
approach. The paper ends with a reiteration of all
the conclusions.
We are wary of making generalizations about the
marketing systems of the WASAT. Each nation has
its indigenous market structure, with its
regional and ethnic diversity and each government
its own brand of state intervention. This coupled
with differences in infrastructure (roads, warehouses,
and personnel), crop mix, prices, and
other important variables, makes each country a
special case.
Certain characteristics, however, seem common
to all of the countries and are important for
developing a general understanding of marketing
in this zone. Each of the countries has private and
state marketing systems which coexist. Although
the state has a legal monopoly on grain marketing,
except in Mauritania, it handles only about 20% of
marketed grains. Private trading thrives. Food
crop production is concentrated in cetrain areas of
each country. Consumption needs are concentrated
in large urban areas and rural areas that
have production deficits. Redistribution is costly
and difficult. The dimensions of the problem in a
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. 1982. Sorghum in the Eighties: Proceedings of
Symposium on Sorghum, 2-7 Nov 81, Patancheru, A.P.. India. Patancheru, A.P. India: ICRISAT.
the International
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