cross-border bean market performance in western kenya and eastern uganda跨境bean在肯尼亚和乌干达东部西部市场表现.pdfVIP

J. Service Science Management, 2010, 3, 501-511 501 doi:10.4236/jssm.2010.34057 Published Online December 2010 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jssm) Cross-Border Bean Market Performance in Western Kenya and Eastern Uganda 1 2 3 4 Lianda Wanyonyi Mauyo , Jonas N. Chianu , Bernard Kibet Nassiuma , Richard Onyango Musebe 1Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Eldoret, Kenya; 2Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility institute of CIAT (TSBF-CIAT), Nairobi, Kenya; 3Department of Quantitative Skills and Entrepreneurship Studies, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya; 4Department of Development Studies, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. Email: lmauyo@ Received August 12th, 2010; revised September 20th, 2010; accepted October 28th, 2010. ABSTRACT Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is an important grain legume in East Africa, providing food and income to rural households. Smallholder farmers in Kenya and Uganda have widely adopted improved varieties. The demand for com- mon bean in Kenya outstrips domestic supply – hence the need for imports. There is significant border trade on com- mon bean between Kenya and Uganda. This study assesses the efficiency of this trade and evaluates the performance of common bean marketing as well as the associated transport system. Purposive, multistage and systematic random sam- pling methods were used to select the 210 respondents for the study. SPSS was used for data analysis. Results indicate huge inefficiency in common bean marketing in Kenya and Uganda due to poor road infrastructure and high transac- tion costs (mostly due to transport costs). Primary market traders incurred a significantly higher cost than terminal market traders. Generally,