Unpacking the Meaning of ‘Market Access’: Evidence from Rural Kenya

► Smallholder market access conditions in Kenya have generally improved from 1997 to 2010. ► Alternative market access indicators are weakly correlated with one another. ► Any single indicator, or aggregate index, may not reflect conditions of interest. ► Physical infrastructure variables fail to capture intermediary marketing conditions. ► More thoughtful design of access indicators will benefit future empirical work. This paper critically examines the dimensions of market access. Using farm panel survey data from Kenya, we investigate changes in ten indicators of market access during the 1997–2010 post-liberalization period. We find major improvements in certain market access conditions and little change in others. There is generally low correlation between alternative indicators of market access. All-purpose indicators may not accurately reflect specific market access conditions of interest. Distances to physical infrastructure are often not representative of farmers’ access to markets; changes in specific market access conditions may have more to do with the behaviors of marketing agents. We consider the implications of these findings for agricultural marketing policies and for research methods.