Market access and inefficient cropping patterns in Uganda

Bruno Morando

Economics Department Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of transportation costs on cropping patterns in Uganda. By combining village level data on land use and on crop specific land suitability, I show that agricultural TFP could be increased by one third just by reallocating crops according to the underlying structure of comparative advantage. Interestingly, a decomposition indicates that half of these gains can be achieved just by redistributing crop production within narrowly defined areas serving the same urban markets. The empirical analysis suggests that differences in market access are a good candidate to explain these inefficiencies: in line with the qualitative theoretical model, more iso-lated farmers devote systematically more land to non-perishable food crops and their production is less aligned with the agro-climatic conditions they face.

Keywords: Crop choice; Land Use; Comparative advantage; Market Access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O40 Q14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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