| dc.description.abstract | It is known that provision of fruit and vegetables is of fundamental
necessity to human nutrition, and lack of these commodities bee use of
prohibitive high transport charges can have severe consequence in human
health, especially in urban centres, where the population depends on imported
food from rural areas. Information on the present structure, conduct and
performance of transportation system, is somewhat limited. rThere is
therefore a need to get detail information as regards, number of vehicles,
type, capacity, of vehicles involved, and prices ruling in the markets, so as
to determine what factors affect the market prices, for both transport and
commodities.
This report is based on the information collected from deficit and
surplus areas. The report gives the result of study conducted in Nyandarua,
Kiambu, Tai.ta-Taveta districts and Nairobi and Mombasa markets. A random
sample of 114 drawn from all market participants and informed government
officials were interviewed. The major objectives of the study are:
(a) To investigate the mode of transport used by producers and traders,
(b) To investigate the truckers behaviour,
(c) To investigate the relationship between distance covered,
transport charges, capacity of vehicles, and price paid to farmers,
(d) To investigate what percentage share transfer charges take
of the wholesale prices,
(e) To investigate the major variables affecting farmgate and
wholesale prices.
Arising from the above objectives the following major hypotheses
were tested -
(i) That the farmers and traders Hear the market use simple
transfer methods to ship produce to the market,
(ii) That there is a relationship between capa city of vehicle and
scale of business, type of produce and the length of haulage,
(iii) That the transfer arrangements affect transport costs.
(iv) That transport charges a're directly related to the actual
costs and therefore inflexible.
(v) That transfer costs are charged per unit weight: this
means products with high value per unit (for instance
tomatoes) are less affected by long distance transport
than low valued products such as cabbages.
Many types of vehicles of varying capacities are involved in
the transfer of fruit and vegetables. Smaller vehicles ranging from
1 - 2.5 tons operate near the market. But larger vehicles operate
further afield.
A large number of participants trade in fruit and vegetables,
and hence the market is competitive, as there is no monopoly as
regards the business. Calculations based on owned vehicles and
hired vehicles indicate that whether one hires a vehicle or owns it,
there is no cost advantage.
The testing of hypotheses indicates, that both farmgate and
wholesale prices are affected mainly by the distance covered, and
the percentage share taken by the transfer charges increases with
increasing distance. Also if the produce is of high value, the
transfer charges take a smaller percentage of wholesale price.
It is therefore important to grow crops of raw value near the market
and crops of high value further afield,unless this rule is offset by .
problems of perishability. | en |
