How do market price dynamics play a role in the agriculture and nutrition sectors? Can market price fluctuations for staple and nutrient-dense food items affect market performance, value chain development, and food and nutrition security? How have market prices been affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic? What role does adverse weather and climatic events, pest and disease outbreaks, or new market opportunities play in affecting crop and livestock prices across both time and space?
These questions and more were asked in the recent IFPRI Rwanda learning event on Price Dynamics for Agriculture and Nutrition Policy, hosted in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI). At the event, the IFPRI Rwanda Strategy Support Program sought to provide government and civil society participants with the theory and tools needed to answer these important price dynamics questions.
Picture 1: David J Spielman, program head of Rwanda SSP, opening the learning event
With a wealth of market price data already available through the MINAGRI e-Soko database, the event focused on how best to take full advantage of all of the information this database can offer. E-Soko collects daily and weekly market price data in 66 markets across Rwanda for approximately 90 items, including food items, agricultural inputs, cooking inputs, and live animals. Some examples that were discussed of how this data can inform policy included: assessing whether there were any price shocks during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for key staple foods; and analyzing the cost of a healthy diet, and how much additional expenditure is needed for households to consume the recommended levels of key nutrients.
Picture 2: Emmanuel Kwizera, MINAGRI Agriculture Knowledge Management Specialist, facilitating the e-Soko session
The MINAGRI e-Soko team provided participants with an introduction on the objectives of e-Soko data, an overview of how they are collected, as well as the way forward and their exciting plans to upgrade the platform to include additional analysis features. The e-Soko team also helped to facilitate a visit to Musanze market to see the data collection in action. Participants observed as the data collector visited market vendors to collect the prices of various commodities and entered the data into her tablet to send to the e-Soko server.
Picture 3: Participants with e-Soko data collector in Musanze modern market
By the end of the learning event, participants were able to work in groups to select a commodity and examine its price dynamics over the past year using the Stata statistical software. This activity resulted in informative presentations on the price dynamics of Irish potatoes, beef meat, and soybeans, including how an increase (or decrease) in their prices would impact certain groups of people, how the prices have fluctuated in the last year, and the implications of those price fluctuations.
Picture 4: Participant group presentation on beef price trends across provinces
About the Authors:
Gilberthe Benimana Uwera is a research analyst in the IFPRI Rwanda Strategy Support Program.
Gracie Rosenbach is the country program manager of the IFPRI Rwanda Strategy Support Program.
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