Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
3
chains will only increase. Programs to improve farmers’ knowledge of production and
marketing strategies, comply with grades and quality standards, and ensure that their
production practices are sustainable will likely have better outcomes if the farmers who
participate have basic education, including literacy and numeracy. In the process of
structural transformation, investments in education and health also enable the labor force
to adapt more readily to changes and benefit from opportunities. A healthy, educated rural
population is in a better position to transition to work outside of agriculture.