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Accepted Paper:
Institutional design for inclusive market access and smallholders' livelihood security: A mixed-methods study
Gopi Sankar Gopikuttan
(Azim Premji University)
Gopal Naik
(Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)
Paper short abstract:
How to ensure inclusive market participation and livelihood security of farmer households? Through an in-depth case study following mixed methods approach, we show that institutional design that provides a set of integrated services to enhance households' agency and mitigate their risks is required.
Paper long abstract:
In this study, we focus on the puzzle of institutional designs to ensure livelihood security of farmer households engaged in commercialized agriculture. Under the agriculture-led approach for development, connecting farmers with markets is an important means to improve their livelihood conditions. However, gains for farmer households from this channel is limited for a few reasons. First, smallholders tend to be excluded from market participation owing to poor resource endowments and high transaction costs. Second, commercialization in the absence of supporting ecosystem can be vulnerability-enhancing. Third, livelihood security of farmers hinges not only on returns from agricultural markets since they are located at the intersection of multiple markets. In this context, we aim to answer two questions: a) what ought to be an ideal institutional design to ensure inclusive market participation and livelihood security of farmer households? and b) how does such a design help a farmer household to access markets and ensure its livelihood security?
We first develop theoretical framework of an ideal institutional design for inclusive market participation. Next, we undertake in-depth case study of design orchestrated by an agricultural marketing cooperative in India that has semblance to the ideal design. To generate deeper insights, we follow mixed-methods strategy combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. Both primary and secondary sources of data are used for empirical analysis to separate the grain from the chaff. We show that a set of integrated services that enhances households' agency for market participation and mitigates their risks can ensure livelihood security.
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Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
Paper long abstract:
In this study, we focus on the puzzle of institutional designs to ensure livelihood security of farmer households engaged in commercialized agriculture. Under the agriculture-led approach for development, connecting farmers with markets is an important means to improve their livelihood conditions. However, gains for farmer households from this channel is limited for a few reasons. First, smallholders tend to be excluded from market participation owing to poor resource endowments and high transaction costs. Second, commercialization in the absence of supporting ecosystem can be vulnerability-enhancing. Third, livelihood security of farmers hinges not only on returns from agricultural markets since they are located at the intersection of multiple markets. In this context, we aim to answer two questions: a) what ought to be an ideal institutional design to ensure inclusive market participation and livelihood security of farmer households? and b) how does such a design help a farmer household to access markets and ensure its livelihood security?
We first develop theoretical framework of an ideal institutional design for inclusive market participation. Next, we undertake in-depth case study of design orchestrated by an agricultural marketing cooperative in India that has semblance to the ideal design. To generate deeper insights, we follow mixed-methods strategy combining both qualitative and quantitative methods. Both primary and secondary sources of data are used for empirical analysis to separate the grain from the chaff. We show that a set of integrated services that enhances households' agency for market participation and mitigates their risks can ensure livelihood security.
Agriculture and livelihoods
Session 1 Wednesday 6 July, 2022, -