Contract farming has been subject to intense debates regarding its role in development. Opponents argue that large agribusiness companies generally exploit the low labour costs of smallholders and transfer production risks to farmers, while smallholder farmers are often excluded from contract farming schemes. This means that such schemes result in greater income inequality and social tensions i...

THE CASE FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION IN SMALLHOLDER MARKETING Issues concerning farmers with small land holdings figure prominently in global discussions about poverty reduction, as the majority of the world’s poor belong to such households. Most of these households are linked to the market in one way or another. Thus, the opportunity for smallholders to raise their incomes from agricultural producti...

Most researchers defend cocoa agroforests as a model, which guarantees sustainable cocoa production while protecting biodiversity. However, in most countries, farmers' strategies favour "full sun" cocoa farms, close to the concept of monoculture. Why this apparent paradox? Field surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2008 with 180 migrant and autochthon farmers in four districts of Ghana, including...

Smallholding in the cocoa sector has been seen as a hindrance to production and productivity growth due to the ageing of the cocoa farmers, limited access to credit, low level of education and low adoptability of innovations. In order to curb this, policy makers have resorted to implementing policy instruments that encourage the extension of small rural farms into larger farms, thereby undermin...

As consumer demand for organic food grows, organic certification is increasingly promoted in many developing countries. Organic products earn a premium price on the market compared to conventional varieties. Hence, organic production is often seen as a valuable alternative for developing countries with many smallholders. Using value chain analysis for the case of the pineapple sector in Ghana a...

In the Andapa region of northeast Madagascar, smallholders cultivating swidden hill rice (tavy) for subsistence are pressing against neighboring nature reserves. A dominant policy approach to reducing this pressure requires that smallholders abandon tavy and purchase rice from proceeds obtained from their environmentally sustainable commercial crops, vanilla and coffee. Economic liberalization ...

The paper presents the results of studies which investigated farmers’’ reasoning and behaviour with regards to the mis use of personal protective equipment and pesticide among smallholders in Colombia. First, the research approach is described. In particular, the structured mental models approach and the integrative agent centred framework are presented. These approaches permit to understand th...

The rise of private food standards has brought forth an ongoing debate about whether they work as a barrier for smallholders and hinder poverty reduction in developing countries. This paper uses a global value chain approach to explain the relationship between value chain structure and agrifood safety and quality standards and to discuss the challenges and possibilities this entails for the upg...

The agricultural extension service in Sri Lanka is generally considered as supply driven, and limitedly focused on farmers’ aspirations and needs. The state services are also said to be inefficient and operating at a high cost. From the farmers’ point of view it is an incomplete service provider. This has increased attention towards the potential for privatization of agricultural extension serv...

Declining soil fertility, exacerbated by continuous cultivation of land, poverty and limited access to productive assets, is a crucial factor limiting crop production among smallholders in Uganda. Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices that involve a combination of organic and mineral fertilizers, and other improved farming practices such as planting legumes and diversified crop ...