Fonio and Jute Mallow Market Availability and Price Dynamics in Northern Benin

This dataset documents the external food environment for fonio and jute mallow in the communes of Boukombé and Natitingou in Benin. It captures vendor characteristics, crop availability, pricing, seasonality, and marketing conditions across food acquisition points. Data were collected via interviewer-administered surveys using the Open Data Kit platform.

Use Cases

• Analyze price fluctuations and identify high and low price periods for fonio and jute mallow across different food environments.
• Map vendor characteristics and GPS coordinates to assess the spatial distribution of market availability for these underutilized crops.
• Study marketing modalities, including units of measurement and preservation methods, to understand local trade practices for fonio and jute mallow.
• Examine the relationship between crop availability at the time of visit and reported seasonality patterns in the Atacora Department.
• Investigate vendor-reported challenges and procurement strategies within the local food system for neglected and underutilized species.

Strengths

• Data collection was validated in real-time to minimize errors during entry.
• Includes GPS coordinates for each surveyed food acquisition point, enabling spatial analysis.
• Focuses on two specific underutilized crops (fonio and jute mallow) in a defined geographic region (Boukombé and Natitingou communes).

Limitations

• Sample size and number of data rows are unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Data is from a purposive, non-random sample of acquisition points, which may not be representative of all vendors.
• The dataset's temporal coverage is unclear beyond the collection year mentioned in the title (2025).

Provenance

Source

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Dataverse.

Collection Method

Data collected through interviewer-administered individual surveys using digital questionnaires on tablets via Open Data Kit (ODK). Targeted, purposive sampling was applied.

Time Range

2025 (as indicated in the title).

Freshness

Data was last updated on the platform in February 2026.

Geography

Communes of Boukombé and Natitingou in the Atacora Department, Northern Benin.