Abstract:
Agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa continues to lag behind that of other regions in the developing world, such as Latin America and Asia. Numerous studies have suggested mineral fertilizer underuse as a factor that hinders boosting agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa, but none have explored the supply of high-quality fertilizer and the demand for it simultaneously as barriers to upgrading. This proposal aims to examine supply- and demand-side forces to study quality upgrading in the Tanzanian fertilizer market by answering three questions. First, what are the impacts of large-scale governmental input subsidies on input use and prices? Second, what are the returns to sourcing high-quality fertilizer, both for traders in terms of profit margins and to farmers in the form of higher yields and income? Third, what is the joint impact of subsidies to farmers and quality certification to traders on productivity, competition, profits, and prices?
