Income of producers and traders of agri-food products in the Niger Valley: influence of border closures

Abstract

Agricultural finance is a crucial issue for the development of agriculture and poverty reduction In Benin, as in many West African countries, agri-food products are the subject of intense cross-border trade. This social integration with neighbouring countries is a real opportunity to bridge the gap between food demand and the insufficient supply of certain commodities. However, in recent years, a series of crises have led to the closure of borders between Benin and its neighbors. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of border closures on the income of producers and traders of local agri-food products in the Niger Valley. It was a cross-sectional, descriptive and comparative study carried out in three towns bordering the Niger Valley. Over 350 stakeholders (producers and traders living within a 15 km radius of a border market where they were active) were surveyed during the course of the study in three towns: Malanville in Benin, Gaya in Niger and Lolo in Nigeria. The average age of those surveyed was 44.57 ± 11.54 years. Farmers/breeders accounted for 69.71%, compared with 30.29% of traders. The closure of borders led to a significant drop in income for 97.71% of those surveyed. The average subsidy fell significantly during the border closure (p-value = 0.0000). Both proportion of producers who received support from extension services and those who had access to credit had also dropped significantly (p-value = 0.0000). Better monitoring of stakeholders and the implementation of an agricultural transformation policy are necessary to prevent the consequences of future border crises in the Niger Valley.

Keywords: border closure, agri-food products, border trade, Niger Valley.

Classification JEL : D11, D12, P44.

Paper type : Empirical Research