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The bulk of developing countries' populations and poor depend on agriculture for food and income. While rural economies and people are generally the most severely affected by natural disasters, little is known about how disasters and subsequent relief activities affect agricultural markets with differing levels of development. The article addresses this gap, drawing evidence from bean seed markets in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. Case studies are used to address hypotheses about a disaster's effects on supply and demand in seed markets, farmers' responses and the performance of relief interventions in markets showing differing levels of development. The results show the importance of tailoring relief interventions to the markets that they will affect and to the specific effects of a disaster; the potential to use local and emerging seed distribution channels in a relief intervention; and opportunities for relief activities to strengthen community seed systems.

Pressupõe-se que o ambiente institucional tem um papel relevante em determinar a governança, já que este pode implicar diferentes custos de transação para os agentes econômicos. Tendo como base a Nova Economia Institucional (NEI), o objetivo deste artigo foi entender como os custos de transação podem influenciar um dos principais elementos de escolha da estrutura de governança, a complexidade das relações contratuais, e como esta influência pode variar nos distintos ambientes institucionais. Para isso, estudou-se a relação contratual entre supermercados e fornecedores de produtos (frutas, verduras e legumes - FLV) orgânicos e convencionais em dois diferentes ambientes institucionais (Brasil e EUA). Testaram-se as hipóteses propostas neste artigo por meio de 128 entrevistas, as quais foram analisadas por meio dos modelos de equações estruturais, sendo que um mesmo modelo teórico foi estimado para dois grupos (os dois países) para comparação de seus coeficientes. Os resultados encontrados mostraram que a influência dos custos de transação na complexidade da relação contratual, afetando assim a escolha entre as estruturas de governança, foi diferente a depender do ambiente institucional considerado. Conclui-se ao final deste trabalho que há evidências empíricas, demonstradas pelos resultados dos modelos de equações estruturais aqui utilizados, de que o ambiente institucional pode alterar as influências sobre a complexidade das relações contratuais e assim na escolha da estrutura de governança a ser utilizada.

Resumo: Este artigo analisa as relações entre a escolha dos canais de distribuição dos produtores (enfatizando distribuição por meio de supermercados versus outros canais), o uso da tecnologia e as características dos produtores Classificação JEL: L2 -Objetivos, 0rganização e comportamento da empresaAbstract: This paper examined the relationships between growers' choice of market channel (emphasizing the supermarket market-channel versus others), technology use, and grower characteristics such as human capital and farm size. Three key findings emerged. First, both tomato and lettuce growers selling to the supermarket market-channel had more human capital than those not participating. Second, while farm size was important in whether lettuce growers sell to supermarkets, it was not important for tomato growers. Third, technology use was significantly more capital-intensive among lettuce growers selling to the supermarket channels, however, that was generally not the case for tomato growers. These results are important to agribusiness researchers and policymakers interested in technology design and research and extension to enable producers to adapt to the needs of changing agrifood markets, with new requirements of attributes of products and transactions, which in turn have implications for technology adoption and human capital investment among growers. This is particularly pressing in places like Brazil where the market for horticultural products is changing quickly, conditioned by the rapid rise of supermarkets.

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Resumo: Ao redor do globo, a emergência de grandes cadeias de supermercado em mercados alimentícios de varejo é frequentemente associada à marginalização de varejistas menores. Uma notável exceção existe Classificaçao JEL: L22Abstract: Worldwide, the emergence of large supermarket chains in food retail markets is often associated with the marginalization of smaller retailers. A notable exception exists in Brazil, however, where small retailers have held their place in the market and recently even gained ground. The literature investigating how retail concentration has affected agrifood chains has focused activities of the largest retail chains, implicitly holding the scale, scope and specialization of retailers' input needs constant, and overlooking the influence of these factors on retailers' procurement strategies. This paper tests hypotheses regarding these variables' effects on retailers' fresh produce procurement strategies. Data is drawn from a survey of retailers in metropolitan São Paulo. The research results provide insight into factors underlying retailers' procurement strategy choices and tradeoffs among options. The results support the fundamental hypothesis of the paper that research on the competitive strategies of smaller retailers in a context of market domination by large retailers should not focus exclusively on the degree to which the smaller retailers imitate the larger retailers rather it should account for the possibility that the underlying characteristics of the retailers may make diverse competitive strategies appropriate.