Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
7
International Collaborative Efforts
International collaborative efforts are important to address similar challenges faced by OIC
Member Countries. In general, most OIC Member Countries need to continuously improve an
enabling environment attractive to agriculture, thereby specifically taking in to account the
small-scale and fragmented nature of their agricultural marketing systems and the absence of
integration of small-scale subsistence farmers into agricultural markets. It is especially this
enabling role which market institutions could play.
More specifically, several bottlenecks common across the three selected case study countries
demonstrate the inability of domestic farmers to get integrated in the agricultural marketing
system. Many examples from the case studies may serve as models for similar initiatives in
other OIC Member Countries to address (some of) these bottlenecks, while other bottlenecks
may be addressed through OIC collaboration and initiatives. Examples include setting up
agricultural zones along borders of Member Countries, encouraging inter-institutional
collaboration on agricultural research across on problems typical for OIC Member Countries,
harmonizing standards for inputs, and generally creating a platform for the exchange of best
practices, research results, and organization of market institutions across OIC Member
Countries.
Finally, future research and further discussions may be necessary with regards to developing
specific key performance indicators (KPIs), which specifically gauge the efficiency of market
institutions. Conducting research into best practice relationships among agricultural market
institutions as well as non-agricultural institutions to specifically address the lack of integral
coordination of the agricultural market system is required. Finally, how to develop well-
functioning farmer registration systems, which are aligned and integrated with other market
institutions to optimize performance of such systems, may be a topic for further exploration.