African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics Volume 13 Number 1 pages 78-105 Rice flows across regions in Madagascar Tsilavo Ralandison* Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. E-mail:
[email protected] Yutaka Arimoto Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University, Kunitachi, Japan. E-mail:
[email protected] Hisaki Kono Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. E-mail:
[email protected] Takeshi Sakurai Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. E-mail:
[email protected] tokyo.ac.jp Kazushi Takahashi Faculty of Economics, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract This paper examines rice trade flows within and across regions in Madagascar, based on data of unique rice sales collected in 22 major markets in Madagascar in 2012 and 2013. We find that intra- regional trade accounts for a large fraction of the overall rice trade. We then focus on factors that may affect inter-regional transactions, such as market status (i.e. deficit or surplus), geographical proximity and seasonality (harvest vs. non-harvest and rainy vs. dry). We find that rice flows mainly from surplus to deficit regions and within regions that are geographically proximate. Seasonal factors have a generally negligible impact on rice flow. Key words: trade flow; origin; destination; rice; Madagascar 1. Introduction It is well recognised that the degree of commodity market integration has a significant impact on food (in)security. Well-integrated markets provide a mechanism that helps move food efficiently from surplus to deficit areas and minimises the adverse effects of region-specific shocks, such as crop failure (Zant 2012).