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There is increasing evidence from both research and practice that one way for smallholders to overcome market imperfections and effectively participate in the market lies in organizing into farmer groups or producer organizations.
Acting collectively, smallholders may be in a better position to reduce transaction costs for their market exchanges, obtain the necessary market information, secure access to new technologies, and tap into the high value markets, which would give them an advantage when competing with large farmers and agribusinesses.
This paper is a synthesis of a forthcoming article
by Markelova H.; Hellin J.; Meinzen-Dick R.; Dohrn, S., titled Collective Action for Smallholder Market Access, in Food Policy, special issue on Collective Action and Market Access for Smallholders, 2008 (forthcoming)
prepared by CAPRi.
It examines the conceptual issues and empirical evidence on the role of collective action institutions in improving market access for the rural poor.
The article also aims to identify policies that can facilitate collective action for market access among smallholders as well as the appropriate interventions by public and private sectors, and civil society to stimulate producer organisations; it also examines who is better positioned to pay for such interventions. |
