Enhancing Smallholder Competitiveness in the Face of Globalization

Problem & Objective
Smallholder farming has been the institutional structure for some of the most effective historical contributions of agriculture to economic development. Yet, this very social structure is under threat as globalization, trade liberalization, and the development of integrated value chains for food communities progresses. This project analyzes three institutional innovation with potential of increasing the competitiveness of the smallholder sector: fair trade, the linking of insurance to credit, and the use of credit bureaus in microfinance lending.

Research Context
Guatemala has an unusually large smallholder sector with a strong indigenous base engaged in labor intensive non-traditional exports. It is an excellent natural laboratory since it combines widespread smallholder farming with a rapidly-growing high value export sector.

Policy Relevance
Results from this project will provide an unusual combination of benefits: opportunities for collaborating institutions (including fair trade agencies, producer cooperatives and microfinance lenders) to improve their products and provide information for policymakers to improve policy design.

Publications

• BASIS Brief no. 2007-04. Enhancing Smallholder Competitiveness in the Face of Globalization, by Alain de Janvry, Elisabeth Sadoulet, Craig McIntosh and Tomas Rosada. July 2007. 4 pages. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 70K]

• Ozier, Owen. 2008. "The structure of Fair Trade Coffee Production in Guatemala and Price Transmission to Farmers."

• Sanborn, Rebecca. "Fairtrade Coffee Production in Guatemala." Report produced for the University of California, San Diego.

• Buck, Steven, Craig McIntosh, Elisabeth Sadoulet, and Tomas Rosada. "Reputation in a Public Goods Game: Taking the Design of Credit Bureaus to the Lab."

• Project Proposal (March 2007)