Measuring Policy Distortions Along Agricultural Value Chains: Lessons From Africa and Asia

The global agricultural sector is undergoing a transformation, with a rapid expansion of trade in processed agricultural commodities. With this transformation comes expanded interest in how agricultural value chains can aid rural development. This requires a better understanding of how policies affect price transmission and incentives for producers and consumers along the value chain of relevant agricultural commodities.

In this webinar, we will share new research findings on the analysis of policy distortions to agricultural incentives along selected value chains in four countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, and Tanzania. In these studies, we measure agricultural distortions at different nodes of the value chain to understand the relative roles of market structure and policy interventions. The studies, supported by the Policies, Institutions, and Markets CGIAR Research Program (PIM), focus on small ruminants value chains in Ethiopia, maize and groundnut value chains in Tanzania, palm oil and cacao value chains in Nigeria, and oilseed and sugar-molasses-ethanol value chains in India.  Policies that target development of agricultural value chains would benefit both smallholder farmers and consumers more compared to policies that target only one segment of the value chain.