Parastatal Input Procurement Lead-Time Friction
Observational StudyReview
Centralized government input procurement systems require farmers to register demand up to 10 months before planting, creating massive logistical lead times that lead to widespread delays and input shortages.
Picture this
Imagine a grocery store requiring customers to order their vegetables ten months in advance through a regional government office. By the time the vegetables arrive, the delivery is late, the quantity is incorrect, and half the customers no longer have the cash to pay for them.
What the evidence says
Over 70% of surveyed smallholder households reported that chemical fertilizer is regularly supplied late, and approximately 40% reported that available input quantities were inadequate for farm needs.
- Who was studied
- N = 2,399 rural agricultural households surveyed across 120 Kebeles in Amhara, Ethiopia evaluated in national agricultural input studies.
- How
- Observational supply chain audit and household survey evaluating input delivery timeliness and adequacy.
What to do
Streamline agricultural input supply chains by enabling decentralized retail stockholding closer to planting periods rather than relying solely on advance aggregation by cooperative unions.
From the source
"More than 70% of the households reported that fertilizer is often supplied late and around 40% of the households reported that supplies were inadequate."
Productivity, credit, risk, and the demand for weather index insurance in smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia