Making the Grade : Smallholder Farmers, Emerging Standards, and Development Assistance Programs in Africa - A Research Program Synthesis

Market access has been identified as one of the foremost factors influencing the performance of small-scale producers in developing countries, and in particular least-developed countries. Smallholder access to markets for higher-value or differentiated agricultural and food products (hereafter HVAF) is recognized as a vital opportunity to enhance and diversify the livelihoods of lower-income farm households and reduce rural poverty more generally (World Bank 2007a). Smallholder participation in HVAF markets is typically constrained by inadequate farm-level resources, farm-to-market logistical bottlenecks, and more general transaction costs in matching and aggregating dispersed supplies to meet buyer and consumer demand. These traditional constraints have been amplified and, in some cases, surpassed by a new set of challenges associated with compliance with product and process standards, set and enforced by governments as well as private supply-chain leaders. In the face of emerging challenges and opportunities associated with standards and serving HVAF markets, many development agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, and private companies have implemented measures to level the playing field, strengthen specific technical or institutional capacities, or otherwise act to facilitate smallholder compliance with standards and continued or increased participation in HVAF supply chains. Such investment, cost-sharing, capacity-building, or capacity-bridging activities have expanded considerably in recent years, especially in SSA. These initiatives have taken varied forms and involved various entry points. Many initiatives have been bottom-up, focusing on smallholder (group) capacities for production, collective action, standards compliance, and so forth; others have been top-down, seeking to better link farmers to remunerative markets through the efforts and enhanced capacities of lead firms; and others have opted for intermediary models, with donors and NGOs assuming critical supply-chain functions. Still other interventions have focused outside of specific value chains, seeking to strengthen the overall enabling environment and support services for HVAF more generally. Relatively little of this expanding field of development assistance has been formally evaluated to consider its cost-effectiveness and impacts. Nevertheless, there are evident signs of learning and adjustment within the development community regarding the strengths, limitations, and pitfalls of various approaches and, relatively recently, some efforts to begin to share these lessons and to better coordinate development assistance in this field.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Jaffee, Steven, Henson, Spencer, Diaz Rios, Luz
Format:	Other Agricultural Study biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank 2011-06-01
Subjects:	ACCESS TO MARKETS, ADVISERS, AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES, AGRICULTURAL SERVICES, AGRICULTURE, BREWERIES, BREWING, CAPACITY BUILDING, COFFEE INDUSTRY, COLLECTIVE ACTION, COMMERCIALIZATION, COMMON MARKET, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, COMPETITIVENESS, CONSUMERS, CROP DEVELOPMENT, DAIRY, DAIRY DEVELOPMENT, DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES, DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE, DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, DOMESTIC MARKET, DOMESTIC MARKETS, DRIVERS, ECONOMETRIC ANALYSES, ECONOMIC COOPERATION, EMERGING MARKETS, EMPLOYMENT, EXPORT MARKETING, EXPORT MARKETS, EXPORTS, FAIR, FAIR TRADE, FINANCIAL SECTOR, FOOD ADDITIVES, FOOD CHAINS, FOOD MARKETS, FOOD POLICY, FOOD POLICY RESEARCH, FOOD PRODUCTS, FOOD SAFETY, FOOD STANDARDS, FOOD SUPPLY, FRUIT, GAUGE, GROUNDNUT, GROUNDNUTS, HAZARD, HONEY, HYGIENE, IFPRI, INCOME, INSURANCE, INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, ITC, LABELLING, LABOR ORGANIZATION, LAMB, MARKET ACCESS, MARKET DEVELOPMENT, MARKET INTEGRATION, MARKET PENETRATION, MARKET POWER, MARKET SEGMENTS, OUTPUTS, PACKING, PESTICIDE, PRICE ADVANTAGE, PRODUCT MARKETS, PRODUCT QUALITY, PRODUCTION PROCESS, PRODUCTIVITY, RETAIL, RETAIL INDUSTRY, RETAILING, SAFETY, SAFETY STANDARDS, SERVICE MARKET, SMALLHOLDER AGRICULTURE, SPICES, SPREAD, SUBSTITUTE, SUPERMARKET, SUPERMARKETS, SUPPLIER, SUPPLIERS, SUPPLY CHAIN, SUPPLY CHAINS, SUPPLY COSTS, TEA, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, TRADE FAIR, TURNOVER, VANILLA, VEGETABLES, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, WTO,
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000333037_20120215233328 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2823
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