Land Grabbing Or Rice Sector Development Opportunity?

Large-Scale Agricultural Investments And Household Vulnerability To Food Insecurity: Evidence From Kenya, Madagascar And Mozambique

Most of the smallholder farmers in Mali are confronted with multifaceted challenges, which include low productivity, post-harvest crop losses, underdeveloped markets, vulnerability to climate change, and gender inequality affecting the distribution of resources. These problems require interventions such as institutional reforms that facilitate efficient rural service delivery, development of markets, creation of physical infrastructure, and supportive government policies while ensuring a stable and conducive political environment.

In this chapter, we propose a framework of market-based incentive mechanisms for the adoption and scaling of sustainable production standards throughout rice value chains and review evidence of two mechanisms that have been piloted in Vietnam: “internalizing” and “embodying.” The evidence suggests that sustainable production standards can be successfully “internalized” in rice value chains through policies (public governance) that provide an enabling environment for vertical coordination and private governance of standards (e.g., through contract farming).

This guide is intended to support smallholder farmers, and advocates working closely with them, in exercising more agency and living more independently according to their own priorities. It aims to assist smallholders in making free choices in relation to farm production, markets and trade. Farmers with agency can negotiate with, and challenge, the people and institutions that affect their lives.