A three-year study of the ways small-scale farmers operate in Africa, Asia and Latin America has prompted calls for a major rethink of development and business interventions.<\/p>\n
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) – Hivos project\u2019s final report – published Thursday – shows how mainstream efforts to make markets work for poor farmers can fail to operate in tune with the ways such farmers themselves try to make their markets work.<\/p>\n
\u201cContrary to the prevailing narrative, and what NGOs, policymakers and donors expect, interventions that aim to upgrade small-scale farmers into high-value, formal supply chains and modern markets tend to benefit only 2-10 per cent of farmers,\u201d says Bill Vorley, a principal researcher at the IIED and co-author of the report.<\/p>\n
Vorley and his co-authors point out that most small-scale farmers combine farming with other activities and trade more in informal than formal markets – and rarely through cooperatives or producer organisations that can take advantage of connections with modern markets.<\/p>\n
The report shows that rather than being a problem that needs to be fixed, informality can provide the space for small-scale farmers\u2019 agency, to find and build flexibility and resilience in a globalising world.<\/p>\n
A central part of the study was managed by a network of farmer leaders, business people, researchers and civil society that spanned Central America, the Andes, East Africa, India and Indonesia. It was led from Bolivia by the Mainumby – Nakurutu Research Centre .<\/p>\n
This learning network found that dynamic local, national and regional markets in developing nations give small-scale farmers options beyond those that high-value and modern global supply chains offer. Factors that encourage this include more buyers in the countryside looking for supply, increased trade between developing nations and a growth in urban markets.<\/p>\n
At the same time, many small-scale farmers are modernising in their own ways. Rather than rejecting or fully joining modern, globalised markets they are combining aspects of them with informal structures, culture and traditions.<\/p>\n
The report draws attention to a key issue: the fact that fewer young people will want to farm tomorrow. Policies and development interventions to support small-scale farmers need to fit with this changing and complex reality to get the future right regarding not only agricultural production and consumption but also youth employment.<\/p>\n
Co-author Ethel Del Pozo- Vergnes, a senior researcher at lIED, says it would be better for governments, donors, development agencies and big business to work to understand and support the strategies small-scale farmers are already using, as the combine formal and informal ways to make markets work for them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Desmond Osueke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A three-year study of the ways small-scale farmers operate in Africa, Asia and Latin America has prompted calls for a major rethink of development and business interventions. The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) – Hivos project\u2019s final report – published Thursday – shows how mainstream efforts to make markets work for poor farmers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecotales","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}