Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar

The large majority of extreme poor in the world lives in fragile states. Yet, despite the enormous importance of these areas for global poverty and food insecurity, there is relatively little research examining how agricultural value chains, crucial for assuring food security, respond and adapt to s...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Minten, Bart, Goeb, Joseph, Win, Khin Zin, Zone, Phoo Pye
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140027
_version_ 1855522773317713920
author Minten, Bart
Goeb, Joseph
Win, Khin Zin
Zone, Phoo Pye
author_browse Goeb, Joseph
Minten, Bart
Win, Khin Zin
Zone, Phoo Pye
author_facet Minten, Bart
Goeb, Joseph
Win, Khin Zin
Zone, Phoo Pye
author_sort Minten, Bart
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The large majority of extreme poor in the world lives in fragile states. Yet, despite the enormous importance of these areas for global poverty and food insecurity, there is relatively little research examining how agricultural value chains, crucial for assuring food security, respond and adapt to such contexts. This paper analyzes Myanmar’s rice value chain – its most important staple and biggest value chain – during the economic collapse and political instability caused by a military coup in early 2021. It relies on unique data collected with a large sample of rice retailers and millers before and after the coup. Despite many challenges in the rice value chain after the coup – most importantly linked to banking and transport – rice processing and trade continued, assuring availability of rice in most retail markets and illustrating the resilience of the value chain to such major shock. While processing margins were mostly stable, an increased distribution margin (between rice millers and retailers) led to 11 percent higher average retail prices after the coup, implying welfare losses of almost USD 0.5 billion for the country. Using a market-pair regression method, we further find that localized violence near sellers and buyers, distances traveled, and distance of vendors from borders are associated with significantly increased rice price dispersion between rice retailers and mills. Despite the amalgam of problems to address in such settings, prioritizing the easing of transport restrictions and facilitating cheap and safe spatial arbitrage of food products would likely help prevent further food price inflation, assure higher farm prices, and therefore improve welfare.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace140027
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Elsevier
publisherStr Elsevier
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1400272025-10-26T13:01:54Z Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar Minten, Bart Goeb, Joseph Win, Khin Zin Zone, Phoo Pye research methods data analysis data military operations agricultural value chains transport rice banking economics trade food insecurity violence The large majority of extreme poor in the world lives in fragile states. Yet, despite the enormous importance of these areas for global poverty and food insecurity, there is relatively little research examining how agricultural value chains, crucial for assuring food security, respond and adapt to such contexts. This paper analyzes Myanmar’s rice value chain – its most important staple and biggest value chain – during the economic collapse and political instability caused by a military coup in early 2021. It relies on unique data collected with a large sample of rice retailers and millers before and after the coup. Despite many challenges in the rice value chain after the coup – most importantly linked to banking and transport – rice processing and trade continued, assuring availability of rice in most retail markets and illustrating the resilience of the value chain to such major shock. While processing margins were mostly stable, an increased distribution margin (between rice millers and retailers) led to 11 percent higher average retail prices after the coup, implying welfare losses of almost USD 0.5 billion for the country. Using a market-pair regression method, we further find that localized violence near sellers and buyers, distances traveled, and distance of vendors from borders are associated with significantly increased rice price dispersion between rice retailers and mills. Despite the amalgam of problems to address in such settings, prioritizing the easing of transport restrictions and facilitating cheap and safe spatial arbitrage of food products would likely help prevent further food price inflation, assure higher farm prices, and therefore improve welfare. 2023-07 2024-03-14T12:08:50Z 2024-03-14T12:08:50Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140027 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135054 Open Access Elsevier Minten, Bart; Goeb, Joseph; Win, Khin Zin; and Zone, Phoo Pye. 2023. Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar. World Development 167 (July 2023): 106244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106244
spellingShingle research methods
data analysis
data
military operations
agricultural value chains
transport
rice
banking
economics
trade
food insecurity
violence
Minten, Bart
Goeb, Joseph
Win, Khin Zin
Zone, Phoo Pye
Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar
title Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar
title_full Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar
title_fullStr Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar
title_full_unstemmed Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar
title_short Agricultural value chains in a fragile state: The case of rice in Myanmar
title_sort agricultural value chains in a fragile state the case of rice in myanmar
topic research methods
data analysis
data
military operations
agricultural value chains
transport
rice
banking
economics
trade
food insecurity
violence
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140027
work_keys_str_mv AT mintenbart agriculturalvaluechainsinafragilestatethecaseofriceinmyanmar
AT goebjoseph agriculturalvaluechainsinafragilestatethecaseofriceinmyanmar
AT winkhinzin agriculturalvaluechainsinafragilestatethecaseofriceinmyanmar
AT zonephoopye agriculturalvaluechainsinafragilestatethecaseofriceinmyanmar