SYNOPSIS: Basic changes in market regulation have provided an opportunity for low-income consumers in Zimbabwe to improve their diets and real incomes, even while macro-economic adjustments to remove unsustainable food subsidies were being implemented. This synthesis also shows how information on consumer preferences among income groups can be used to make markets work better for BACKGROUND: In...

in spite of the technologies developed during the last decade, the level of food loss is still high and is reported in many countries. according to the united nations, more than 30 per cent of the mortality rate world-wide is caused by alimentary diseases. the desire of most countries to make food safer for consumption requires better food preservation and production techniques. in this regard,...

Scientific and technological developments in the agricultural sectors in the recent past has resulted in increased food production and at the same time led to certain public health concerns. Unseasonal rains at the time of harvest and improper post harvest technology often results in agricultural commodities being contaminated with certain fungi and results in the production of mycotoxins. Cons...

The growing demand for high-value food commodities is opening up opportunities for farmers, especially smallholders to diversify towards commodities that have strong potential for higher returns to land, labour and capital. However, there is an apprehension about the capability of smallholder farmers to participate in the market-oriented production due to their lack of access to markets, capita...

It is well known that capitalist development depends on free wage labor and previously accumulated capital, as Marx (1967/1867, p. 166) claimed “the owner of money must meet in the market with the free labourer”. This claim, of course, implicitly assumes sufficient supply relatively affordable food for the proletariat in the capitalist sector, as both industrialization and urbanization greatly ...