Information Service and Spatial Integration of Agricultural Markets

The liberalization of agricultural markets in Togo in 1987 led to the abolition of the monopoly held by the former agency responsible for marketing agricultural products. This liberalization was accompanied by the establishment of the Food Security Observatory (now ANSAT) in 1997. Among other tasks, this body collects and disseminates prices for certain agricultural products, including corn, beans, and gari, throughout the country. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of price list dissemination on the spatial integration of the corn, bean, and gari markets in Togo. To achieve this, the study used statistical analysis to assess the impact of Market Information Services (MIS), and nine markets were selected throughout the country. At this stage, there has been an improvement in the long-term integration of bean markets with the dissemination of the price list, which is not the case for other markets, which appear to be more segmented than before the SIM. Solutions are proposed to improve the spatial integration of these markets in Togo.