Integration of smallholder farmers into agribusiness value chains under restrictive markets: the case of the littoral-Mahafaly plateau transect in south-western Madagascar

Description: Markets are institutions that provide rules, opportunities, and information for sellers (supply) and buyers (demand), facilitang their engagement in trade transactions. Lack of knowledge of production options, inefficient cultivation techniques and high labour costs, remote locations and high transport costs, inefficient organization and information systems that could give farmers sufficient bargaining power, a lack of mechanisms to cope with bio-physical constraints and risks caused by natural hazards, an absence of adequate governmental and non-governmental extension services, as well as high insecurity, dependencies, and low expectations are constraints faced by farmers and traders while performing their agricultural and commercial activities in southwest Madagascar Littoral Zone and Mahafaly Plateau. Such large entry barriers force farmers into highly inefficient practices of subsistence farming. Market constraints will often lead to an inefficient use of land, labour, or other resources, including environmental resources. In addition, without the facilitating role o markets, beneficial trade, production, and consumption options are often closed off, or more costly to actualise. Nevertheless, the poor may benefit from increased integration into market systems for their livelihoods, for instance, by providing a range of services that are important in building people?s capacities to develop beyond poverty.

Topic: AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
MARKETS
MARKET ACCESS CONSTRAINTS
VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS

Get full text: http://repositorio.educacionsuperior.gob.ec//handle/28000/1488