Spatial integration of Vegetable Markets in West Africa: Case of Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) between Benin and Burkina Faso

The instability of world prices of traditional cash crops led to the promotion of nontraditional crops. Among the latter, vegetable farming is positioned as strategic cropping for meeting urban and periurban food consumption in most West African countries. Seasonality differences between coastal and sahelian countries, coupled with, the logic of vegetable producers, and the requirements of crops and the prices variability resulted in the development of production and marketing strategies favorable to market integration in West African countries. This study aims at providing preliminary information on tomato market integration between Benin and Burkina Faso. Data from fields surveys and on monthly prices, extracted from ONASA and DGSA databases are used to analyze the regional market integration. Cointegration models based on Johansen approach and Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach of Pesaran are used for analysis. The hypothesis on the existence of a potential weak integration of tomato markets was confirmed and corroborated in this study. Established chains of integration were identified between the Cotonou market and the main tomato-producing areas of Burkina Faso and Benin production areas with the markets of Boulkiemdé, Kénédougou, Oubritenga Sanguié respectively. The integration chain of Cotonou was found to be more established than the Bohicon and the Malanville chains and constitute a reference market for tomato wholesalers. However, there is need to conduct further in-depth analysis on integration to tap existing opportunities for enhanced vegetable producer’s income and poverty reduction.