Sorghum is among the top three crops produced by farmers in

Mali, and it is these self-same farmers who underpin the country’s

sorghum marketing system.

A study by ICRISAT West and Central Africa shows that, about 27%

of sorghum produced is sold into spot markets, indicating that sor-

ghum is sold to buyers once farmers have determined the quan-

tity necessary to cover their own consumption.

However, little information is known on the value added and the

economic performance of sorghum supply marketing in Mali du-

ring harvest and planting periods.

• baCkground

Analyze the economic performance of sorghum grain marketing during

harvest and planting or lean periods. The specific objectives are:

Identify the spot markets, the actors involved in the sorghum sup-

ply chain and their role in both periods;

Evaluate the value that each actor add to the supply chain;

Evaluate the profitability of sorghum marketing.

• objeCtives

The Supply management chain framework is used to analyze the

surplus distribution among chain participant;

The Structure, Conduct and Performance concept is applied to un-

derstand the structure of the system, the conduct of the various

actors and how this results in an overall performance that

changes the system’s structure over time;

The value added and market margin approaches are used to com-

pute the values that each category of actors added in sorghum

marketing.

• methodology

Structure and conduct :

Sorghum marketing system is vertically integrated (see in Figure 1)

and consists of five categories of actors: farmers, collectors, wholesa-

lers, retailers and consumers.

Farmers, the first major players in the sorghum value-chain use

more than 70% of the quantity produced for their own consump-

tion and sold the rest to market intermediaries.

Collectors, divided in two types: collector-producers and speciali-

zed-collectors usually live in the production areas and buy sor-

ghum grains on a weekly basis for sale to wholesalers on the spot

local market.

Wholesalers, divided in two types: local-wholesalers and external

wholesalers provide financial, transport support out to Mali’s

urban centers (Bamako, Mopti, Sikasso, Ségou etc.) and store sor-

ghum grains. In general, collectors are working on their behalf.

Retailers usually buy sorghum from wholesalers but their role in

the marketing of sorghum is very low.

Performance:

Sorghum sellers obtain a relatively high profit and that they gene-

rate interesting value added in the sorghum supply management;

Wholesalers add more value to sorghum grain than collectors. In

addition, wholesalers get the higher marketing margin compare to

both types of collectors (see in Table1);

For 100 kg of sorghum sold in the market, the total value added is

about for 13,937 FCFA. The share of each actor in this value is in-

dicated in Figure 2.

• results and main aChievements

• reCommendations

Enhance integration of actors in the sorghum marketing;

Encourage the use of sorghum in other sectors as the poultry sec-

tor;

Policy makers should pay attention to manage the scale instru-

ments.

•Current partnerships

ICRISAT sorghum breeding teams, namely Fred Rattunde & Eva W.

Rattunde;

An Bè Jigui project for the funding support

SUPPLY MARKETING OF SORGHUM IN MALI

Alphonse Singbo1 & Bréhima Sangare1

1International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid and Tropics

Corresponding author email: a.singbo@cgiar.org