Economic assessment of pearl millet commercialization among farmers

In recent years, governmental and non-governmental organizations in Mali have given more attention to agricultural markets development to meet consumers¿ demand. This demand marks a model of mass consumption which is related to an increase of the population. Thereby, different programs have been developed to target agricultural value chains and markets linkage. The main purpose of this study was to assess the emerging marketing value chain of pearl millet in Dioila cercle among farmers. The survey was conducted in seven villages. Primary data was collected through face-to-face using semi-structured questionnaire and secondary data from National Office of Trade and Competition, National Office of Market Observatory, and Organization for Consumers in Dioila. The characterization of farmers was analysed using descriptive statistics. To measure market participation among farmers Heckman two steps model was used. Price spread model to determine different marketing agents¿ margins at different level of markets and finally Ordinary Least Square (OSL) to determine factors affecting the price spread.