Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
103
As of 2013, about 46 percent of national standards were fully aligned with international
WTO standards. Currently, two state-of-the-art reference laboratories provide reliable and
affordable calibration services. Interest in quality certification among food processing
enterprises remains comparatively low, however. Local enterprises are focusing more on
the immediate need to resolve production inefficiencies than on efforts to improve quality,
and on maintaining their domestic market share than on their share of quality-sensitive
external markets.181
INFRASTRUCTURE
Market infrastructure—roads, storage facilities, and wholesale assembly and post-harvest
processing facilities (packing, labeling)—is poor at all levels throughout the country. Every
year, 200 kilometers of roads are lost to inadequate maintenance.182 In 2012, around 92
percent of farmers surveyed by OECD reported having no access to off-farm storage
facilities, and 71 percent of those with access to warehouses reported using them for non-
agricultural products, perhaps because the facilities are outdated and inadequate for
storing fruit and vegetables. The unreliable power supply is reportedly responsible for a
13 percent reduction in the value of annual sales.183 Adequate market infrastructure
would give farmers an incentive to store both perishable and non-perishable products.
They would gain an opportunity to increase their incomes and invest in improving the
productivity and production of cash crops.
Lessons for other OIC countries
The Kyrgyz Republic case study highlights the challenges of an agricultural sector driven
by smallholder farmers who are relatively new to farming, receive little support, and miss
out on emerging market opportunities. Smallholder farmers generate about 98 percent of
Kyrgyz Republic’s agricultural output. For a range of important commodities—wheat,
potatoes, vegetables, and cotton—limited access to agricultural machinery causes losses
estimated to be 15–25 percent higher than normal losses of 12 percent. The machinery
deficit also raises land preparation and harvesting costs, which are 55 percent higher in
Kyrgyz Republic than in Kazakhstan. The small number and geographic concentration of
obsolete storage facilities result in substantial post-harvest losses. Not surprisingly,
despite strong domestic and foreign demand for processed food, constraints on the
quantity and quality of produce have slowed development of the processing industry,
which cannot exploit market opportunities or compete with imports. Administrative
inefficiencies and graft at border crossings (Kyrgyz Republic is a landlocked country) also
seriously affect farm-gate prices and the capacity to reach new markets.
180 ITC (2013).
181 World Bank (2013c).
182 World Bank (2014d).
183 World Bank (2011b).