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Banana consumption in the study area
Bananas are consumed in various forms; mostly as cooked, roasted, dessert, brew, and juice. The demand for the cooking types is increasing rapidly in the urban areas due to rural-urban migration and changing consumer preferences. In Rwandas capital city of Kigali, the demand for cooking banana types has recorded a 50% increase over the past ten years (Spilsbury et al., 2004). Likewise, demand in the other urban centres in the study region is increasing rapidly. The beer banana types are mostly processed into a brew consumed within the household or in restaurants. This processing is mainly done informally by individual households or traders. The dessert types are mostly consumed fresh whereas the plantains are mostly roasted and consumed in households or sold in urban centres and roadside markets. Since production levels of the dessert and plantain types are not as high as the beer and cooking types, their consumption zones are quite indefinite with a fair spread across most communities (Jagwe et al., 2008). There is little or no consumption of plantains in Rwanda and Burundi. The main source of cooking bananas for the households is from own production in all the three countries. In South Kivu, the main source of plantain is own production. For beer bananas, a number of households rely either on purchases alone or both own production and purchases.
The socio-economic characteristics of households
The characteristics of the households constituting the study sample are depicted in Tables 3 and 4. The farmers have an average land holding of about four hectares and have an average family size of about six persons. Approximately 80 percent of the households are headed by males and the households have farming experience of about 20 years on the average. The average distance to the nearest market is approximately three kilometres while the average distance to the nearest hospital is approximately 12 km. About 32 percent of these respondents own bicycles while 62 percent own radios. Approximately 30 percent of these farmers belong to a farmer group. About 29 percent of these sample households have access to credit (formal or informal) and their average non-agricultural revenue does not exceed US$75 per annum. Each of these households produces about 1572 kg of bananas per annum on the average of which about 13 percent is sold. About 30 percent of the sales occur at the farmgate. Their main source of market information are traders and fellow village mates.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
1.2 The Research problem
1.3 Objectives of the study
1.4 Hypotheses
1.5 Definition of key terms
1.6 Organisation of the dissertation
CHAPTER 2 THE BANANA INDUSTRY IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION
2.1 Banana production in the Great Lakes region
2.2 Importance of bananas to livelihoods
2.3 Banana consumption in the study area
2.4 Banana marketing channels and chain actors
2.5 Summary
CHAPTER 3 DETERMINANTS OF MARKET PARTICIPATION OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS
AND INTERMEDIARIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
3.1 The conceptual framework
3.2 Transaction costs
3.3 Selling directly versus selling through intermediaries
3.4 Traders participation in banana markets
3.5 The analytical framework for market participation
3.6 Summary
CHAPTER 4 DATA SOURCES AND SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS
4.1 The data sources
4.2 The sample composition
4.3 Descriptions and definitions of variables used in the study
4.4 Summary
CHAPTER 5 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS APPROACHES TO ANALYSING THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN TRANSACTION COSTS AND MARKET PARTICIPATION AND APPROACH USED IN THE STUDY
5.1 Previous studies on market participation
5.2 Previous focus on intermediaries/middlemen
5.3 The proposed crop in focus
5.4 The proposed approach
5.5 Suitability of the approach
5.6 Summary
CHAPTER 6 MEASUREMENT AND ESTIMATION PROCEDURES
6.1 Market participation
6.2 Transaction cost effects on the marketing of highly and less perishable commodities
6.3 Transaction costs and the farmers choice of selling point
6.4 Transaction costs and the participation of traders in banana markets
6.5 Summary
CHAPTER 7 RESULTS OF THE STUDY AND DISCUSSION
7.1 Households market participation
7.2 Transaction cost effects on the marketing of perishables versus less perishables
7.3 Households choice of selling point
7.4 Traders participation in banana markets
CHAPTER 8 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS
8.1 Summary of the study
8.2 Major findings of the study
8.3 Conclusions and implications for policy
8.4 Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research
