Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia

Due to the rapid growth of cities in Africa, many more farmers are now living in rural hinterlands in relatively close proximity to cities where many provide food to urban residents. However, empirical evidence on how urbanization affects these farmers is scarce. To fill this gap, this paper explore...

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Autores principales: Vandercasteelen, Joachim, Tamru, Seneshaw, Minten, Bart, Swinnen, Johan
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: International Food Policy Research Institute 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146471
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author Vandercasteelen, Joachim
Tamru, Seneshaw
Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
author_browse Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
Tamru, Seneshaw
Vandercasteelen, Joachim
author_facet Vandercasteelen, Joachim
Tamru, Seneshaw
Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
author_sort Vandercasteelen, Joachim
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Due to the rapid growth of cities in Africa, many more farmers are now living in rural hinterlands in relatively close proximity to cities where many provide food to urban residents. However, empirical evidence on how urbanization affects these farmers is scarce. To fill this gap, this paper explores the relationship between proximity to a city and the production behavior of rural staple crop producers. In particular, we analyze data from teff producing farmers in major producing areas around Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. We find that farmers located closer to Addis Ababa face higher wages and land rental prices, and because they receive higher teff prices they have better incentives to intensify production. Moreover, we observe that modern input use, land and labor productivity, and profitability in teff production improve with urban proximity. This urban proximity has a strong and significant effect on these aspects of teff production, possibly related to the use of more formal factor markets, lower transaction costs in crop production and marketing, and better access to information. In contrast, we do not find a strong and positive relationship between rural population density increases and agricultural transformation – increased population density seems to lead to immiserizing effects in these settings. Our results show that urban proximity should be considered as an important determinant of the process of agricultural intensification and transformation in developing countries.
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spelling CGSpace1464712025-11-06T05:29:57Z Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia Vandercasteelen, Joachim Tamru, Seneshaw Minten, Bart Swinnen, Johan urban areas agricultural transformation intensification productivity rural urban migration Due to the rapid growth of cities in Africa, many more farmers are now living in rural hinterlands in relatively close proximity to cities where many provide food to urban residents. However, empirical evidence on how urbanization affects these farmers is scarce. To fill this gap, this paper explores the relationship between proximity to a city and the production behavior of rural staple crop producers. In particular, we analyze data from teff producing farmers in major producing areas around Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. We find that farmers located closer to Addis Ababa face higher wages and land rental prices, and because they receive higher teff prices they have better incentives to intensify production. Moreover, we observe that modern input use, land and labor productivity, and profitability in teff production improve with urban proximity. This urban proximity has a strong and significant effect on these aspects of teff production, possibly related to the use of more formal factor markets, lower transaction costs in crop production and marketing, and better access to information. In contrast, we do not find a strong and positive relationship between rural population density increases and agricultural transformation – increased population density seems to lead to immiserizing effects in these settings. Our results show that urban proximity should be considered as an important determinant of the process of agricultural intensification and transformation in developing countries. 2016-07-01 2024-06-21T09:07:11Z 2024-06-21T09:07:11Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146471 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148335 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.10.032 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Ethiopian Development Research Institute Vandercasteelen, Joachim; Tamru, Seneshaw; Minten, Bart; and Swinnen, Johan. 2016. Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia. ESSP II Working Paper 91. Washington, DC and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146471
spellingShingle urban areas
agricultural transformation
intensification
productivity
rural urban migration
Vandercasteelen, Joachim
Tamru, Seneshaw
Minten, Bart
Swinnen, Johan
Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia
title Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia
title_full Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia
title_fullStr Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia
title_short Cities and agricultural transformation in Africa: Evidence from Ethiopia
title_sort cities and agricultural transformation in africa evidence from ethiopia
topic urban areas
agricultural transformation
intensification
productivity
rural urban migration
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146471
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