Summary. -Modern retail is quickly becoming an important driver of changes in food markets in developing countries. However, the impact of this development on basic food prices facing urban consumers is not well understood. In a detailed case study of Delhi, modern retail is shown to emerge quickly, offering more labeled and branded food products and more choice than traditional markets. We further find that modern retail at its mere incipience in India sells basic foods mostly at the same or lower prices than traditional retail and might thus become an important contributor to improved urban food security.

The present article studies the impact of migration to the construction sector on rural poverty in India based on field survey. The survey has been carried out in two phases, the first phase involving the survey of construction workers in National Capital Region and the second phase comparing the well-being of migrant households with non migrant households in selected source villages. The study finds that at destination, workers have poor living and working conditions, lack citizenship rights, entitlements and voice. However, at the cost of hardship, low consumption levels, and possibly a smaller working life span, they manage to save a good portion of their income which they remit or take back home. At origin, migrant households report higher expenditure on consumption, residential housing, and children’s education, as well as some other assets. These differences are a result of higher employment and wage incomes among migrants. However, we were not able to control for differences in initial conditions, and life cycle and other issues, which influence both participation in migration, as well as long-term impacts.

a b s t r a c tLocal brands are rapidly gaining agricultural market share in developing countries. However, it is not well understood how they reshape agricultural value chains. In a detailed case study of the value chain of makhana in Bihar, we see the fast emergence -a doubling over 5 years -of more expensive packed and branded products. The effect on consumers is ambiguous. While the emergence of brands leads to increasing differentiation in retail markets, the brands in these settings provide however mostly incomplete or misleading information for the consumer and quality contained in branded bags is often lower than for loose products. We further also find that there are little direct benefits to the farmers from the presence of these brands.

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the NAIP project in Bihar are focusing on. Primary surveys were fielded with producers, traders, cold storages, and retailers at the end of 2009 on the rural-urban potato value chain in Bihar, more in particular from the disadvantaged districts part of the NAIP project (Vaishali and Samastipur) to urban consumers in Patna. The most salient findings are presented below.Upstream. First, potato production in Bihar is largely in the hands of smallholders: farmers from the smallest half of potato producers cultivate 0.5 acres of potato. This compares to 1.8 acres for farmers from the largest group. Second, farmers suffer from an important late blight disease problem. Actual potato yields in 2009 were two-thirds lower than the expected yields due to that disease. Despite the incidence of this disease, reported potato yields in the districts are as high as the national level, casting doubts on the national agricultural statistics in vogue which consider Bihar a lagging potato state. Third, farmers rely relatively little on seed markets and almost all farmers store their own seeds in cold storages. Only on 18% of the plots were purchased seeds used, indicating that seed replacement ratios are about 1 out of 5 years. However, larger farmers replace seed more often. Fourth, despite the low use of seed input markets, important changes have happened over time and the white potato variety has now become much more important than the traditional red variety that was usually grown. Especially the larger farmers have switched relatively more to the white variety. Fifth, larger farmers are able to obtain higher yields, possibly because of their more intense use of inputs. Sixth, 70% of the potato farmers are now empowered by a mobile phone. While some farmers use it to do market transactions, this is still only a minority (20%). Seventh, sales in the harvest season are almost all to a village broker while in the off-season, potatoes are mostly sold to traders at the cold storage. Wholesale market sales by the farmers are of less importance. Eight, an important reason why a number, and especially the smaller, farmers sell after harvest is the urgent need of money. Little credit or advances are used in market transactions and the major reason for the choice of a trader is when 2 he pays immediately. Ninth, while almost all farmers participate in cold storages as to store their seeds, larger farmers store relatively much more for sale at an expected higher price in the offseason.Midstream. First, an important boom in cold storage capacity -and thus in potato productionhas happened in the two studied districts. The number of cold storages in the last decade doubled or tripled and rapid up-scaling of cold storages led to an even faster total capacity expansion, i.e. a triple and five-fold increase over the same period. Second, the boom is associated with increasing commercialization of potatoes from the two districts as the share of storage for seed potatoes is relatively on the decline. Third, several triggers explain the boom in thi...

In disadvantaged districts of Bihar, one

Drawing upon insights from growing strand of value chain literature, this article examines primary data collected from farmers supplying cauliflower and spinach to Reliance Fresh in the outskirts of Jaipur to understand the implication for farmer households of emergence of supermarket in a smallholder-dominated setting. The article finds that as a lead firm, Reliance Fresh is adopting flexible models of sourcing, devoid of any resource provision, to procure fresh produce of required quality and standards. In such a context, the barrier to participation of smallholders in supermarket-driven agri-food system varies across crops, depending on resource intensity of crops. Participation of smallholders, poorly endowed with human and physical capital, is limited in resource-intensive crop, such as cauliflower, because of high entry barrier in terms of requirement of assets. In contrast, entry barrier is low for smallholders in labour-intensive crop such as spinach, but competition among them, endowed with family labour, bid the rent down to the minimum. Gini decomposition exercise indicates that the emergence of supermarket-driven agri-food system has adverse distributional consequence in rural agrarian setting. Promotion of wholesale market with better infrastructure and encouragement of farmer federation as institutional innovations are suggested for inclusive agri-food marketing system.

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