Food security and grain trade in Ghana

It was found that the real costs of transportation and handling, not the opportunistic behavior on the part of the traders, were behind the high degree of seasonal prices changes in Ghana. Storage and interest costs cannot account for the level of the variability of the seasonal price increases. The findings point more to faulty information and the riskiness of markets than to technical features or collusion as the cause of seasonal price rises. It still needs to be determined whether farmers" storage differs from traders" storage and how the two groups adapt their storage behavior to changes in government policy. (Author abstract, from Fall 1992 issue of ARTS Abstracts)