More marketing choices mean better livelihoods for poor paddy growers. Validated RNRRS Output.

Abstract

This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.

Summary for Project title: R7496: Marketing constraints to increasing financial returns to small and medium scale rice paddy producers in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, poor paddy growers are benefiting from new credit schemes that give them access to better prices for their crops. In the past, it was difficult for small-scale paddy farmers to have a choice concerning when and where to sell. Markets controlled by local elites left these farmers trapped in a vicious circle of poverty, indebtedness and dependence on the wealthy and influential households in their communities. Better understanding of these problems made it possible to develop a series of institutional innovations that enhance crop marketing to the benefit of smallscale producers. These include inventory credit schemes, focused on the transaction costs that shape the structure of the paddy marketing system, and, in particular, the linkages between participants. This methodology is also applicable to many other marketable crops and livestock products.

The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (8 pp.) taken from the CD.

Citation

CPH19, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 89.

Published 1 January 2007