Effect of rural farmers’ access to information on price and profits in Cameroon

Abstract

In rural land-locked areas of Africa, access to information about market prices can have a fundamental effect on the prices and profits of farmers. However, it is not clear how farmers organise to have better access to market and what role telephones can play in reducing access to information. A semi-structured questionnaire which served as a tool for data collection was administered to 225 farmers in Pinyin Clan of the North-West region. Descriptive statistics and the Analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to evaluate price and profit gap between farmers with access to information, farmers who sell through middlemen, farmers who sell through group sales and farmers who did not use any of the above options. The results revealed that there was a significant price and profit gap between farmers who have access to information through mobile phones, who organised and sell through group sales. There was equally a significant price and profit gap between vegetable farmers who sell directly to the market and those who sell through middlemen. Access to information in rural areas can significantly increase farmers’ incomes and livelihoods, thus the use of mobile phones and group sales can facilitate farmers bargaining power.