Research Article

Effect of agricultural products price fluctuations on smallholder farmer’s welfare in Rwanda. A case study of Gicumbi, Nyagatare, Nyaruguru, Rubavu Districts.

Ntabakirabose Gaspard¹, Kyeyune Charles², Anthony Mwangi Muraya³, Uwanyirigira Alice⁴, Hakizimana Fidèle⁵, Mbabazi Mbabazize⁶

¹Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Kigali, Rwanda

²Department of Agriculture and Resources Economic, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Nairobi, Kenya

³ Department of economic, Greenwise Consult Limited. Kigali, Rwanda.

⁴ Department of Emerging Commodities, National Agriculture Export Development Board, Kigali, Rwanda

⁵ Department of Traditional Commodities, National Agriculture Export Development Board, Kigali, Rwanda

⁶ College of Humanities of Social Sciences, Kampala International University, Kampala, Uganda

Corresponding author e-mail: gmutago@gmail.com

(Received: 10/01/2022; Revised: 04/05/2023; Accepted: 10/05/2023)

ABSTRACT

Agriculture sector is the main motel of life in the world. The price of agricultural products plays an important role in regulating production and consumption mechanism. Mainly farmers have been affected by different problems in supply of the products particularly price fluctuation. This paper aims to assess the effect of agricultural products price fluctuations on smallholder farmer’s welfare. A case study of Gicumbi, Nyagatare, Rubavu, and Nyaruguru districts. A cross sectional research design was used in the study where both purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 120 respondents. A regression analysis technique was used to identify the factors influencing price fluctuation through SPSS and STATA software. The results from the regression analysis indicated that various factors influencing price fluctuation of agricultural production including type of market, seasonal production, climate condition change, middlemen, farm inputs price, nature of product, price of petroleum, and political stability. The results of the study also indicated the effect of good price on farmers ‘lifestyle change through the increased farmer’ income, improved farmers livelihood, reduced the youth migration, increased their money savings, and the effective utilization of farm inputs. The study also revealed different measures for price fluctuation control; these include provision of subsidies to farmers, government price control, improvement of infrastructures, control of middlemen in agriculture sector, market stability, improvement of farming system, and creation of buffer stock zones in agro-ecological regions. As the rural and urban life mainly dependent on farmers ‘produce the stability of price of agricultural products should be control along the whole value chain in all possible area particularly at farm get and market level both regional and district.

Keywords: Price fluctuation, Agricultural products, smallholder farmers, Welfare