Title
Information Access and Smallholder Farmers’ Market Participation in Peru
Date Issued
01 June 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
Previous studies have documented the effect of information and communications technology (ICT) on farmers’ market participation. We employ a triple-hurdle model to examine the effect of internet and phones on Peruvian smallholder farmers’ market participation, marketplace choice, and volume decisions using household-level data from the IV National Agricultural Census of Peru in 2012. Double matching at the district- and household-levels is implemented to address potential selection bias. Results indicate a positive direct effect of internet and phones on farmers’ market participation and volume decisions on the national market. Those with ICT access are more likely to sell on the foreign market than those without ICT access. The marginal effects suggest that internet access tends to have larger impacts on volume decisions than phones. In addition to direct effects, we find that internet access has significant and positive spillover effects on market participation and volume decisions in the national market. Without implementing matching procedures, the magnitude of the ICT effect tends to be smaller. Results provide empirical support for policies and social programmes that promote ICT especially internet usage in rural Peru to improve smallholder farmers’ marketing performance.
Start page
476
End page
494
Volume
69
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Agricultura
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85031106281
Source
Journal of Agricultural Economics
ISSN of the container
0021857X
Sponsor(s)
Results suggest that both internet and phones have a positive effect on Peruvian smallholder farmers’ selling decisions along with sales volumes on the national market. Conditional on being market participants, those with ICT access are more likely to sell on the foreign market than those without access. Compared to the marginal effect of phone access, internet access has higher impacts on sales volume on the national market. Importantly, we find that internet access has significant spillover effects on market participation and sales volume on the national market. This is the first study, to our knowledge, that compares marginal effects of different ICT channels such as internet and phones, and suggests significantly higher impact of internet access. Using double matching at the district and household levels reduces potential selection bias. Our findings support policies that promote ICT especially internet usage in Peru. One relevant policy is the broadband project supported by the Peruvian Fund for Investments in Telecommunications (FITEL), which provides broadband and internet kiosks for rural Peru.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus