We propose a flexible conceptual and methodological framework to model the dynamics of agricultural intensification in the rural–urban interfaces of large cities. We focus particularly on the effects of polycentric urbanisation patterns and trade-offs between agricultural intensification and off-farm employment. In our conceptual framework – modelling household decision-making based on utility maximisation – we show that agricultural intensification in the rural–urban interface is likely to exhibit non-linear and complex spatial patterns due to location-dependent variation in output prices and wage rates. This is confirmed by our empirical analysis of a primary data set of 638 smallholder farms in the rural–urban interface of Bangalore. Applying Structured Additive Regression (STAR) techniques, we model two-dimensional urbanisation effects using household and village coordinates. Results imply that proximity to secondary towns and road infrastructure is the primary channel of urbanisation effects on the uptake of modern agricultural inputs. Furthermore, proximity to the large urban centre of Bangalore appears to increase the opportunity costs of agricultural intensification through improved access to off-farm labour opportunities. Overall, we show that patterns of agricultural intensification around urban centres are not necessarily radially symmetric.

A vast literature on market integration and price transmission has accumulated over the last half century. This literature has received major impetus, first from the introduction of increasingly sophisticated co-integration methods since the late 1980s, and second from the so-called food price crisis of 2007–2008, which heightened interest in the transmission of food price spikes in space and along the supply chain. In this paper I review the literature on price transmission and market integration, highlighting applications in an African setting. I begin by reviewing the basic methods that are commonly used in price transmission analysis, as well as several extensions that have gained prevalence in recent years. I then discuss several important limitations and challenges that remain to be addressed in future research on price transmission and market integration.

It is reasonable to expect that price transmission for perishable products will display seasonal variation, especially in low-income country settings. To date, however, few studies have explicitly tested for seasonal variation in price transmission. We apply a vector error correction model with seasonally regime-dependent adjustment parameters to wholesale tomato prices in Ghana. The results reveal a number of plausible patterns in the seasonal interplay between the main producer and consumer markets for tomatoes in Ghana, and confirm that failure to account for seasonality leads to hybrid estimates of the parameters that depict price transmission behaviour, conflating and obscuring seasonal differences in the way prices and markets interact.