The Impact of Coffee Price Changes on Rural Households in Uganda

Type Journal Article - Agricultural Economics
Title The Impact of Coffee Price Changes on Rural Households in Uganda
Author(s)
Volume 37
Issue 2-3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2007
Page numbers 293-303
URL http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/2012/02/09/000333037_20120209​233359/Rendered/PDF/666770PUB00PUB0Prices0Rural0Poverty.pdf#page=277
Abstract
Employing household survey data covering the periods 1992–1993, 1995–1996, and 1999–2000, this article shows for the case of Uganda that a coffee market liberalization followed by a price boom was associated with substantial reductions in poverty, which could even be sustained when prices went down again. Coffee is not planted by the richest farmers and the gains from higher coffee prices accrued to poorer and richer coffee farmers alike. Nor were poorer farmers hurt disproportionately when prices fell. In addition, we find strong spillovers from coffee production to other agriculture, which tends to favor the poor, and to nonagricultural activities. These multiplier effects are concentrated in coffee regions. In an economic environment characterized by a booming agricultural sector, coffee farmers were able to accommodate the negative price shock, in particular through agricultural diversification. General agricultural growth also cushioned possible negative multiplier effects in coffee regions. Overall, the case of coffee in Uganda thus lends support to the view that agricultural trade liberalization is beneficial for the poor.

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