Market Analysis Tools
Local open markets are often an important source of seed for farmers throughout the developing world. This is especially true for legumes such as common beans and chickpeas, and for cereals such as sorghum, wheat, and barley.
For some key crops or varieties, planting materials will not be available at local and regional markets. For instance, farmers often get their banana cuttings directly from other farmers, on-farm. Nor is all the grain sold in farm markets suitable for use as seed: farmers rely on special wisdom in selecting seed from local markets.
Understanding how seed/grain markets function is key to understanding seed security and the set of tools below aid that analysis. They can be used to assess overall market functioning and then explore immediate seed security issues (availability, quality, price) from the perspective of larger traders who shape regional seed flows as well as those who might sell their own harvests at the local markets.
Local market structure and use
Much information about market functioning in zones affected by the stress or disaster will already be common knowledge and can be quickly obtained, especially from government officials and major traders
Tips for use
- This tool should take a quick 10- 20 minutes to complete with key informants or even the local SSSA team. It gives a first overview: are there routinely markets where farmers buy seed; are market days they still being held; can farmers travel freely?
Seed flows
Much information about market functioning in zones affected by the stress or disaster will already be common knowledge and can be quickly obtained, especially from government officials and major traders
Tips for use
- This tool should take a quick 10- 20 minutes to complete with key informants or even the local SSSA team. It gives a first overview: are there routinely markets where farmers buy seed; are market days they still being held; can farmers travel freely?
Level of Traders
One of the hardest aspects of gathering market intelligence for an accurate SSSA is figuring out whom to interview and how to sort out seed versus non-seed data. Traders are perhaps the key people to interview for assessing markets. Through traders we aim to understand volumes, prices, quality and buyer preferences, as well as to distinguish which grain supplies can be used as seed.
Early on in the assessment, it is important to map the ‘trader hierarchy’ for moving seed (versus grain) in and out of a given region.
Tips for use
- It is possible to start at the farm level, recording who collects from farmers, how they do it, the timing of transactions, and the varieties involved. However, it is also useful to start at the top, with the bigger traders, and move down the hierarchy.
- Trader levels, or hierarchy, might change crop by crop. Each crop should be mapped separately: e.g. maize distinctly from beans.
Bigger Trader Questionnaire
Traders who have large, reliable trucks and storage facilities define their supply territory differently from local sellers who may produce their own seed and travel to market by bicycle or donkey. If the assessment team is to understand overall potential supplies for a region, big traders (regional traders or wholesalers) need to be among those interviewed, as these business people may be able to bring seed/grain from afar.
Tips for use
- When interviewing traders, bear in mind that they may have vested interests and are always keen to make a sale. Development and aid personnel involved in alleviating a crisis are among the most sought-after buyers because volumes are high and payment is usually rapid. Thus, interviews with traders to obtain objective information on seed supply and price must be divorced from any action linked to seed purchases. Expectations need to be clarified from the outset.
- Traders may also be more comfortable revealing details of their business if they have an explicit guarantee that the information will remain confidential or anonymous. Wishes on information use should be established at the beginning of an interview.
Local Market Trader
As the focus of the market assessment is to understand supplies of grain that are of suitable quality as seed, it is important to speak with traders who transact directly with farmers and understand their needs. Through local market sellers , the SSSA team particularly aims to understand how grain supplies are managed and if they can be used as seed (or what we call ‘potential seed).
Tips for use
- Seller are busy people; the interview should not last more than 30 minutes
- Observation of goods on offer can give important information: do the stocks look clean? Are they sorted by variety? Are they free of inert material?
- Focus on sellers of crops whereby potential seed is sourced on the open market. This may include many of the legumes (e.g. beans, cowpeas, lentils, groundnuts), maize, sorghum….