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This study investigated consumers' satisfaction with local rice attributes and willingness to pay (WTP) for improvement by internal migrants and natives in urban Ghana.

Primary data was sourced from 304 urban consumers and ordered probit regression was employed.

Urban consumers had higher satisfaction with imported rice attributes than local rice. Consumers were unsatisfied with aroma, availability/accessibility, cleanliness, packaging, grain appearance, measurement standard, and taste of local rice. Moreover, 90% were willing to pay higher prices for local rice with improved attributes and WTP was higher among natives than migrants. Averagely, urban consumers are willing to pay 51% increase in market price of local rice if attributes were improved. Natives, males, educated, high-income, local rice consumption, shopping from supermarkets, trust in certification bodies, and dissatisfaction with local rice attributes boost WTP for improved local rice attributes.

There is a great market potential for local rice with improved attributes. Thus, there should be an improvement in local rice attributes and sold at moderate price and in supermarkets.

We compared consumers' satisfaction and WTP for improved local rice attributes among internal migrants and natives in urban Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to examine households’ acceptability of local (Ofada) rice by identifying the quality attributes influencing marginal implicit prices (MIPs) paid by rice consumers’ households in South-West, Nigeria.

The data used for this study were collected from a survey of 600 rice-consuming households in the study area. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the respondents. Well-structured questionnaires were used to collect information on general households’ socioeconomic characteristics, their desirability and preference for local (Ofada) rice, and market prices of Ofada rice. Kendall’s concordance test was performed to confirm agreement among respondents in their rankings of the rice quality attributes. Hedonic price function was used to examine the relationship between implicit prices paid by consumers based on quality attributes of local (Ofada) rice, as observed in the market.

The result of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance revealed that there is 73.74 per cent agreement in ranking quality attributes of local (Ofada) rice consumers’ households in the study area. Colour, perceived nutrient level, taste, grain shape and rate of breakage were the most ranked quality attributes with mean attribute ranking scores of 1.56, 1.69, 3.12, 5.53 and 5.86, respectively. The result of the hedonic pricing model revealed that households are willing to pay MIPs of ₦71.03 ($0.20), ₦45.23 ($0.13), ₦32.98 ($0.09), ₦21.06 ($0.06) and ₦14.41($0.04) per kg for colour, grain cohesion, grain shape, perceived nutrient level and perceived chemical storage, respectively, while discounting MIPs of ₦60.55 ($0.17), ₦19.36 ($0.05), ₦17.14 ($0.05) and ₦6.00 ($0.02) for texture, rate of breakage, perceived freshness and low swelling capacity per kg of local (Ofada) rice, respectively.

Continuous importation of rice into the country has many negative implications such as worsening of the poverty status of local rice farmers, unemployment of teeming youths engaged in rice value chain, and exposure to soaring and unpredictable price bringing unsustainable development. Lastly, over-dependency on rice importation, if not checked, can also permit dumping of low quality and sometimes expired rice into the country. All aforementioned reasons will make it difficult for local rice to compete favourably with imported varieties.

Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and Hedonic model were used as a diagnostic tools. These diagnostic tools show the need for government and relevant stakeholders to focus on improving the quality of local (Ofada) rice, especially the undesirable attributes. This could be achieved by adopting modern processing technology, that will enhance production and consumers’ acceptability, which could make local (Ofada) rice have good market share against imported brands.

The economic value of a good is revealed by the consumer’s willingness to pay for the good, consequently increasing production through consumers’ acceptability, and improve living standard of farmers and processors through increased earnings.

The choice of a particular local rice, especially local (Ofada) rice, is made to estimate the effect of different attributes on the price paid by rice consumers’ households and to help in the development of effective technologies and policy that enhance better rice quality using both Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and Hedonic model to achieve the objective. For the first time this research has given clarity on the monetary value attached to local (Ofada) rice consumption by rice consumers’ households through quality attributes.

Product quality standardization is the solution to market collapses due to quality-insensitive pricing regimes prevalent in West African (WA) rice value chains. However, access to local rice that is differentiated by quality standards is limited. This paper explores feasibility of quality standardization of local rice and evaluates how its price–quality connecting effect depends on retailer characters/reactions.

This study uses panel data from a wholesale randomized control trial (RCT) and three surveys of 135 rice retailers in Ghana.

Improved local food value chains and access to quality differentiated products are impactful entry points for import substitution policies. The strength of interretailer competition, retail infrastructure and wholesaler activities matter for a stronger connection of prices and quality, given uptake of quality-standardized local rice.

Access to quality-differentiated local rice can be increased via private and third-party certification. This addresses the prevailing inefficient pricing and its related problems. The positive impacts of such access would be magnified by designing quality certification interventions to elicit regular-frequent purchases by retailers and target retailers with adequate retail infrastructure in high competition areas. However, this study only explored profitability and opportunities for strategic behavior as the behavioral basis for quality-sensitive pricing. Other impact mechanisms could be explored in further research that includes consumer data.

Despite their difficulty and limited use in value chains studies, RCT and panel data methods are used. This study is the first to empirically analyze feasibility of introducing product standardization, a missing institution in the WA local rice markets.

Since the end of the latest rice-pledging scheme, Thai rice farmers have had more freedom in selecting marketing channels. Understanding the determinants of farmers' decision-making associated with these channels is of particular interest to multiple stakeholders in the rice value chain. This study aims to examine how economic, relational and psychological factors concurrently underpin Thai rice farmers' decision-making and influence their marketing channel choice.

Drawing on the theory of reasoned action and utility maximization of farmers’ decision making, this study used structural equation modeling to examine data collected from a nationwide sample of Thai rice farmers (n = 637), focusing on their past and intentional use of the three major marketing channels for paddy rice.

The determinants identified include four direct independent variables: attitude, subjective norm (social referents), transaction conditions and economic goals, and two indirect independent variables: past behavior and trust. Multi-group analysis suggests that rice co-operative users were more empowered to consider economic goals and attitude toward the channel, whilst rice miller and local collector users were more likely to be influenced by their social referents and the transaction conditions offered by the channel.

The findings highlight the need for policy to address trust and transparency issues with intermediaries and to empower farmers through the improvement of market access.

The study makes a unique and substantive contribution to the knowledge of farmers' decision-making about marketing channel choice in Thailand and theoretically contributes to the indirect role of past behavior in predicting prospective intention.

Paddy farmers form the backbone of food security. However, poverty plagues them despite having linked them to the rice value chain. To overcome this, the concept of involving smallholders in post-farm value chain stages is promoted. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of upgrading smallholder involvement in rice value chains through the adoption of a sustainability standard.

The authors built a system dynamic model to capture both conventional and certified sub-value chains. The latter deviates from the conventional one and capitalizes on compliance to a sustainability standard.

When compared to conventional farm gate sales methods, the simulations revealed obvious profitability of direct marketing with respect to certified sustainable rice. Although coupled with productivity growth, the simulations indicated the shift to standard adoption would likely to be both limited and slow.

The findings suggest that the profitability of a certified rice value chain will remain fettered. In order to enhance both farmer livelihood and food security, given the limited prospect of moving smallholders up that chain, the authors conclude that national policy should be rationalized and concentrated on the possibility of diversifying the end-use of rice through research, development and subsequent commercialization.

After the fall of Burma on 10 March 1942 the British government extensively implemented scorched-earth policies in Bengal like denial of rice and boats. The British government had inadequate defense equipment to resist Japanese attack in Bengal. After the Japanese invasion supply of Burmese rice suddenly stopped. Faridpur district used to import rice from Burma. The Burmese conquest created an immediate and serious crisis for several rice imported districts and coastal districts of Bengal. Hence, none of the districts of East Bengal could escape its brutal clutches and severity recorded in Chittagong, Dhaka, Faridpur, Tripura, Noakhali, Bakargonj and so on.

Among the affected districts of Bengal, Faridpur has been chosen as study area due to severity of famine. This study addresses the famine scenario of Faridpur. Data has been collected from primary and secondary sources. Content Analysis Research method is used to test reliability and validity of the data. Historical Analysis Research method has been followed in this study.

Finding of the study shows that the government relief issues, ignorance of warnings, political nepotism and denial policy of British government intensified the famine of Faridpur district. The wartime tactics adopted by the colonial government aggravated the famine situation. This article has shed light on the government war time policy, activity and some impacts of British decline in Burma that fueled the famine in Faridpur district.

This study is my original research work and has not been published else where.

Weaknesses in the grades and standards system in low-income countries across Sub-Saharan Africa undermine the transparency of agricultural markets. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana and Mozambique rice is predominately sold in open bags and if rice price does not reflect its quality, then inefficiencies may lead to consumer welfare losses. Importantly, it is possible that impoverished communities are priced out of the market due to inflated and inefficient prices. The objective of this study is to examine determinates of rice price by estimating the impact of selected rice quality attributes on rice prices in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Mozambique.

We collected 363 rice samples from open air markets in Bukavu (DRC), Nampula (Mozambique) and across Ghana in 2019. Each rice sample was analyzed in a food science lab for the quality attributes: percentage of chalk and brokens, chalk impact, length and length-to-width ratio. We used multiple regression analysis to estimate if and to what extent quality attributes were the drivers of price.

Findings suggest that there are irregularities in the Ghanaian market for broken rice and that regardless of quality, imported rice is priced higher than domestic rice. In the DRC and Mozambique, our results indicate price is driven by length and length-to-width ratio in the former and length-to-width ratio in the latter.

Rice samples were purchased from market vendors and thus consumer preferences for attributes were not revealed.

These results provide valuable insight to policymakers regarding the need for proper labeling and regulation of open bag rice sales in an effort to increase consumer welfare and improve food security.

This study assessed the heterogeneous impact of the Anchor Borrower Program (ABP) on the welfare distribution of rice farming households in Nigeria.

Self-selection bias and treatment endogeneity were accounted for by employing the Instrumental Variable Quantile Regression (IVQR) model. The estimates obtained from the IVQR model were further compared with those from the conventional quantile regression, and quantile regression using Propensity Score Matching. This was to highlight the extent to which endogeneity bias has been purged from the treatment, in order to establish a consistent causal link between participation in the ABP and the welfare of a cross-section of rice farming households.

ABP farmers had significantly higher rice yields across all quantiles of the yield distribution under treatment exogeneity assumption, and in only two quantiles upon controlling for observable confounders. However, this yield gain did not translate to higher Per capita Consumption Expenditure (PCE). The estimates of the more robust IVQR model provided further evidence that the rice yield and PCE of ABP farmers are not statistically different from that of non-ABP farmers across all quantiles of the welfare distribution.

The negligible impact of ABP was relatively higher for lower-yielding households. Thus, implying that, although the ABP is a pro-poor development intervention, the program has not been sufficiently implemented to significantly improve the welfare of the dominant resource-poor farming households in Nigeria.

This study assessed the impact of ABP beyond the conventional potential mean outcome framework by accounting for heterogeneity in treatment effect.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-02-2023-0083

Due to rapid urbanization, rice consumption in Togo has also rapidly increased. Most consumers prefer imported rice over domestically produced rice due to the higher quality of the imported rice. The purpose of this paper is to show that it is possible to upgrade the quality of Togo’s domestically produced rice by providing technical and management support in the form of contract farming.

Cross-sectional data were collected using a multi-stage sampling technique. An endogenous switching regression model was used for data analysis.

The results show that by participating in contract farming, paddy rice quality was upgraded from Grade IV (poor quality) to Grade I (premium quality). The factors influencing this upgrade in the quality of paddy rice grown through contract farming are: the number of extension visits to the farmer, the mode of threshing used by the farmer, and the agro-ecological zone of the farmer.

The data for this study are limited to one country, Togo and this may have implications for generalizing the results for other countries.

This study is original research that contributes to an improved understanding of the impacts of contract farming on the quality of agricultural products produced in developing and emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the rice consumption by rice grain types under the rising income scenario in Bangladesh. Generally, with an increase in income, households tend to consume more food items that are high-value, enriched foods and protein, such as meat and fish, by substituting for cereals. However, consumers also substitute when it comes to grain quality. For example, cereals, such as rice, are available in a range of qualities from the ordinary type (coarse-grain) to the premium type (fine grain). The authors postulate that as household incomes increase, households may consume more premium-type rice (or fine-grain rice), while overall consuming less rice or fewer carbohydrates.

Using the Bangladesh Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2000, 2005, and 2010, and applying multivariate probit and seemingly unrelated regression estimation procedures, this study quantifies the impact of income, household demographics, and urbanization on rice consumption by rice grain types (coarse-grain, medium-grain, and fine-grain types).

The results show that urban, wealthy households and, households headed by educated heads and spouses, are more likely to consume fine-grain rice than their counterparts.

After yield, grain type is the second most important factor for farmers when considering the adoption of a new variety. The price of rice and other cereals is highly associated with the grain type. This study concludes that plant breeding programs of major cereals, such as rice and wheat, should take into account the consumer grain-type preferences when developing new varieties.