The potential of the modern agribusiness to promote broad-based economic growth in the countryside is huge. Food retailers, wholesalers and processors can effectively link small-scale producers to dynamic markets. They can bring technical and managerial capacity-building and investment. This potential of modern agribusiness is however underutilized and indeed in many countries small-scale producers and small and medium scale enterprises are relegated to lower value markets. Many recent initiatives of modern agribusiness, often working with development partners, do not seem in result in lasting economic empowerment and modern market engagement of small-scale farmers or their organizations. Can the new agrifood business drivers be "partners in development"? This Issues Paper looks at some of the evidence of how business models can succeed in securing the inclusion of small-scale producers in dynamic markets.
This publication forms part of the Regoverning Markets project.
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Available at https://www.iied.org/g03301