Raising offtake from cattle grazed on natural rangelands in sub-Saharan Africa: a transaction cost economics approach

Herbert Kyeyamwa, Stijn Speelman, Guido Van Huylenbroeck, John Opuda-Asibo and Wim Verbeke

Agricultural Economics, 2008, vol. 39, issue 1, pages 63-72

Abstract: Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are constrained by large transaction costs associated with marketing of their livestock. However, transaction costs are often not taken into account in the analysis of factors hampering the development of livestock marketing in this region. This article empirically measures the influence of transaction costs on the offtake from cattle grazed on natural rangelands in Uganda. The study is based on the monitoring of 696 cattle transactions in three districts of Uganda from August 2004 to August 2005. The estimated models suggest that proportional transaction costs represented by the state of roads, distance to markets, and time taken to reach the market are important variables constraining market participation. In order to raise offtake from the national herd, it is essential to explicitly address these costs. One potential solution is collective action in marketing of livestock in which proportional and fixed transaction costs are reduced and shared among the group members. Copyright (c) 2008 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.blackwell ... 74-0862.2008.00315.x link to full text (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0169-5150

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Economics is edited by W.A. Masters and G.E. Shively

More articles in Agricultural Economics from International Association of Agricultural Economists
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().