Agricultural Market Participation by Smallholder Farmers in Africa, a review paper

This paper is a review article on the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ participation in agricultural markets in Africa. Agricultural markets play a key role in the lives of poor people in developing countries especially in Africa. However many smallholder farmers may not benefit from these markets as their participation to agricultural markets is constrained. The review is aimed at shedding some light on the factors that influence agricultural market participation. From the study internal factors such as education, output and input price, farm size, transaction costs, gender, family labor, access to credit are some of factors that constraints smallholders to participate in agricultural markets. Policy makers and development economists should therefore seek appropriate means to address these constraints in order to improve market participation.