Smallholder farmers

The first of a series of ‘provocative seminars’ on smallholders and the ‘pro-poor markets’ agenda took place in The Hague, the Netherlands, on 28th September 2010. Local and international participants gathered to discuss a series of questions put forward by ‘provocateurs’ from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

National agrifood markets in emerging economies are being ‘regoverned’ by the private sector, as domestic food retail and processing modernises and restructures, and as the state withdraws from managing markets. These trends are thought to reward scale, capital, organisation, technology and formality and to penalise informality, dispersion and seasonality.

IIED, Hivos and collaborating institutions organised a travelling series of ‘provocation’ seminars to challenge conventional wisdom on how to include smallholders in markets and bring fresh perspectives to the discussion on what works and why.

Small producer agency in the globalised market: second global learning network meeting

The food sovereignty paradigm affirms the fundamental right of peoples to define their food and agricultural policies. This implies that food providers and consumers are directly involved in policy making and institutional choices.