Farmers Profits: Can the Standard Weights and Measures Help?
Abstract
In Ghana, rural people, mostly farmers, experience food insecurity. In bargaining with marketers, farmers tend to lose profits. The use of traditional weights and measures led to inefficient transactions. These difficulties have negatively affected farmers’ productivity, calories intake, and international competitiveness. This research investigates how standard weights and measures can secure farmers’ profits at local markets. Using a random selection of 312 farmers for the questionnaire survey at two markets, we examine the impact of current pricing methods on farmers’ profits and advantages of standard weights and measures for farmers. The results show that price decision-making was based on three primary methods: (1) traditional weights and measures, (2) negotiation with individual marketers, and (3) negotiation with market queens. Markets queens and traditional measures negatively influenced farmers’ profits. Farmers’ perceptions showed that standard weights and measures would not only increase their profits at local markets but also enhance their international competitiveness.
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Introduction
The number of people who suffer from food insecurity in Ghana has increased from 1.2 million in 2009 to 2.1 million in 2016 (FAO, 2017). Rural communities suffer the most. According to a World Food Programme report (WFPR, 2016), about 15.5% of people in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo Region, which is mainly rural, are food insecure. Of what Brong Ahafo residents eat 36% comes from their own farms and58% from local markets (WFPR, 2016). This means that local markets play important roles in ensuring rural farmer’sfood security.
Farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region face many difficulties to optimize their sales benefits at the market. Our earlier study (Antwi and Matsui, 2018) found that traders' adhoc bargaining exploited the majority of farmers in this Region. Crop and vegetable prices were often determined by traditional weights and measures that traders preferred. Adejobi (2011) similarly found that traditional weights and measures at local markets created price inefficiencies. As a result, farmers who come to sell their products at market tend to distrust the market’spricing system (Pool et al., 2003).
This paper examines the extent to which standard weights and measures rather than traditional ones can secure profits for farmers in Ghana so that the country can reduce the number of its food insecure people in the future. In order to achieve the objective, we try to identify (1) current pricing practices at minor and major local markets, (2) effects of these practices on farmers’ profits, (3) determinants of farmers’ profits, and (4) farmers’ perceptions about using standard weights and measures. In the following discussion, we first describe the significance of our study area. We then explain our methodology and discuss the results of our filed study and questionnaire surveys.
Conclusion
Inefficient and opaque transaction practices at Ghana’slocal markets directly or indirectly affect the current rise in food secure people in rural Ghana. Market queens continue to influence the pricing system. This led to the loss of farmers’ profits and limited farmers’ purchasing ability. Also, traditional market price negotiations led to the loss of farmers’ profits. Farmers were well-aware of these conditions as about 67% of our respondents found that they did not receive a fair price for their products, and 68% felt cheated in negotiation. They did emphasize the importance of having standard weights and measures to decide on prices. These farmers appear to be ready to adopt standard weights and measures as they believed that these standards would better inform marketers and consumers about products, allowing them to better compete with supermarkets and international markets. The respondents also believed that these standards would incentivize further production, potentially revitalizing aging agricultural sector. For the Ghanaian government to successfully implement its market standardization policy it needs to better inform farmers and marketers about benefits standard weights and measures can bring.
