Small Farmers, Big Business

Glover, David; Kusterer, Ken

doi:10.1007/978-1-349-11533-4

Cited by 151 publications

(34 citation statements)

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“…The participation of small-scale farmers in supply chains to higher-value markets has been a major topic of study, in particular, the associated role and impacts of contracting and related institutional arrangements (Williams and Karen, 1985;Glover and Kusterer, 1990;Masakure and Henson, 2005). It is contended that a contractual relationship between buyers and sellers can enhance access to marketing and/or technical services (Glover and Kusterer, 1990;Key and Runsten, 1999), which in turn can contribute to facilitating strategies of product differentiation and value addition (Key and Runsten, 1999;Reardon and Barrett, 2000;Reardon and Berdegue´, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Importance of Assessing Marketing Preferences of Small-scale Farmers: A Latent Segment Approach

2010

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This study uses a stated choice-based conjoint model to explore the marketing preferences of small-scale producers of fresh fruits and vegetables in Honduras. A total of eight attributes, proposed in hypothetical contracts to farmers, are evaluated. About two-thirds of farmers show preferences for traditional marketing systems, whereas one-third prefer new marketing channels associated with supermarkets. A latent segment approach, however, reveals significant levels of preference heterogeneity among small-scale farmers. The results suggest the importance of taking into account preference heterogeneity using latent classes in the development of policies aimed at linking small-scale farmers with new agri-food supply chains. À partir d 0 un mode`le de choix conjoint, cette e´tude examine les pre´fe´rences de commercialisation des petits producteurs de fruits et le´gumes frais au Honduras. Un ensemble de huit attributs, propose´s dans des contrats hypothe´tiques offerts aux agriculteurs, sont e´value´s. Deux tiers environ des agriculteurs affichent des pre´fe´rences pour les syste`mes de commercialisation traditionnels, alors qu 0 un tiers pre´fe`rent les moyens plus modernes de commercialisation par l 0 interme´diaire des grandes surfaces. Une analyse en termes de segments latents re´ve`le cependant une forte he´te´roge´ne´ite´des pre´fe´rences des agriculteurs de petite e´chelle. Les re´sultats soulignent l 0 importance de la prise en compte de l 0 he´te´roge´ne´ite´des pre´fe´rences par une analyse des classes latentes, dans le de´veloppement de politiques visant a`relier les petits producteurs aux nouvelles filie`res de distribution agroalimentaire.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Importance of Assessing Marketing Preferences of Small-scale Farmers: A Latent Segment Approach

2010

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“…21 Critiques tend to focus on how outgrowers effectively intensify the exploitation of labour in cane production -by fragmenting workers over multiple enterprises and by socially embedding production within local structures of authority and reciprocity that are also highly unequal in relation to gender. Outgrower production can consequently be used as a vehicle to evade minimum wages and avoid the difficulties of sourcing and disciplining labour on company estates.…”

Section: Outgrowersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interrogating the Logic of Accumulation in the Sugar Sector in Southern Africa

Dubb

2016

Journal of Southern African Studies

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Over the last 20 years sugar production in southern Africa has been characterised by both the geographic dispersal and the heightened concentration of (formerly) South African sugar capital. This paper argues that key variations in the contours of corporate accumulation in the region can be explained through dynamics generated by two sets of interacting variables: (i) the changing productivity of sugar manufacturing and sugar cane cultivation, and the interaction between them, and (ii) shifting terms of pricing and exchange, as governed by mercantile politics. An arithmetic model for the analysis of data is applied in the case of Illovo Sugar. It shows that high profits in Malawi are due to both favourable mercantile and productivity features; that Mozambican profits come exclusively from mercantilism; that Tanzania, Swaziland and especially Zambia owe their relative profitability to particularly high levels of productivity, and that South Africa, Illovo's country of origin, receives low profits in both mercantile and productivity terms. These differences are rooted in value relations, which are core to understanding accumulation in sugar. The paper argues that, although the logic of sugar is somewhat unique, the approach to the analysis of accumulation adopted here has wider application. IntroductionThe southern African sugar sector has attracted renewed attention from academics, policymakers, non-governmental organisations and the media, and is often portrayed in starkly contrasting narratives of 'boom or bust', 1 'development' or corporate corruption. In contemporary scholarship on the agrarian political economy of Africa, sugar is often included as a key case in contemporary debates on land (or water) 'grabbing', 'socially inclusive' business models, contract farming, biofuel production, as well as in long-running debates on the politics of land 472 Alex Dubb reform, rural accumulation and national development. 2 Sugar's place in these debates has some distinctive features. Whereas other land-based and agro-industrial development schemes have tended to stall, expansion of large South African sugar companies into the wider region has witnessed substantial productive investments and boasted improved levels of employment in several countries, as well as opened opportunities for production by thousands of small-scale farmers. Key questions that arise include: what has driven this expansion, what have been its effects to date, and what is its wider significance for debates on the potential of large-scale agricultural investments to reduce rural poverty?This article seeks to assess the dynamics of the southern African sugar sector by examining the 'logic' of capital accumulation. It does so through analysis of value relations, as understood in Marxist political economy, an approach rooted in the changing productivity of labour and its effects on profitability, and influenced by mercantile (trade) relations and their politics. However, there are a number of product-specific reasons for the drive to achieve economie...

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“…Since 1974 due to the 20 billion dollars income of oil, the buying power of people increased to 10%, but the production just increased as 5 %. This gap caused a drastic increase in the prices and because the growth of agricultural products needed infrastructure investment, the government tried to control the prices with an increase in the import rate [3,4]. Because of this the dependence in the agriculture sector increased.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%