Traders as drivers of common bean marketing in Karagwe, Tanzania

In recent years, the share of marketable food surplus has progressively increased in Tanzania & in developing countries. Hence, efficiency in food marketing has become an important determinant of consumers' living cost & producers' income. Yet, food marketing has received less than sufficient scrutiny compared to farming. Scanty empirical evidence available is powerless relative to the deep rooted popular belief that traders exploit peasant and consumers. This belief based on weak empirical ground has often been used to justify government interventions into market, which contradict the interests of both farmers and consumers. This book, therefore, provide an empirical results on performance of traders. Specifically, it looks into socio-economic characteristics of farmers and traders; marketing channels; structure, conduct and performance; marketing cost/margin and factors influencing traders' gross margin. The book should complement efforts to improve marketing system, and be useful to students and professionals in economics, business and rural development. It should also prove useful to development policy analysts and researchers working in National Agricultural Research System.