Market access for smallholder livestock producers under globalised food trade: An analysis of contract farming and other market-linking institutions in India, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines

Issue Date

2010

Abstract

Under globalised food trade, agricultural production processes and marketing have become tightly linked along supply chains, making it more difficult for smallholder producers to remain integrated in mainstream markets as transactions costs of doing so increase. This paper provides an assessment of formal and informal contracts in efficiently integrating rural smallholder producers to mainstream markets of livestock products and looks into four country case studies. It finds that studies on contract farming have focused mainly on formal contracts that tended toward larger-scale farmers in peri-urban locations. Concerted efforts toward informal contracts and alternative directions would result in the opening up of more windows for smallholders that respond to evolving demand patterns for livestock products in domestic markets, rather than forcing the issue of enabling them to produce the high-end products for export and supermarkets whose tight product and process standards are extremely difficult for them to hurdle.

Source or Periodical Title

Looking East Looking West: Organic and Quality Food Marketing in Asia and Europe

Page

173-181

Document Type

Book Chapter

Language

English

Digital Copy

yes

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