Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
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CHAPTER 4: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
The analysis and lessons from previous chapters have highlighted a number of policy
measures to facilitate market access for smallholder farmers in OIC member countries.
The main recommendations are summarized here.
Create the Right Enabling Environment and Upgrade Infrastructure
To participate in and benefit from agricultural markets, smallholder farmers need a
conducive macroeconomic, trade, investment, and agricultural policy environment.
Investments may also be needed in road, port, wharf, and railway systems; power and
water supply; telecommunications; physical marketplaces and trading facilities; and pack
houses and storage facilities. OIC member countries seeking better ways of connecting
smallholder farmers with markets will benefit from systematically analyzing how different
policy measures and the availability and quality of infrastructure currently support or
hamper market access and linkages and then developing a strategy to improve the
enabling environment for smallholder farmers. Where the majority of farmers are
smallholders, a separate strategy may not be needed if a sound agricultural strategy
already exists. Public investment decisions can then be prioritized in accordance with the
priorities set out in the strategy.
Improve Access to Agricultural Finance
OIC member countries can consider a range of innovative models for providing financing
and insurance to farmers. The appropriateness of each model may vary depending on the
policy environment, the type of crop, and the characteristics of farmers. The many recent
experiences with implementing different financing models provide valuable lessons to
member countries evaluating new approaches.
Invest in Disseminating Technical and Market Information to Smallholder
Farmers
Government has an important role in disseminating technical and market information to
smallholders. The dissemination of technical and market information has properties of a
public good,214 because it is both non-excludable and non-rivalrous. The non-excludable
nature of technical and marketing information reduces incentives for private firms to
provide more than minimal information to farmers. The dissemination of technical and
market information also presents a moral hazard: private firms may give farmers only the
information and messages that support each firm’s commercial aims. Enabling smallholder
farmers to explore, learn, and carry out their own value chain analysis and develop their
own marketing plans through participatory approaches has proven to be an effective
strategy for empowering those farmers and facilitating market linkages. In some instances
214 Jaffee and Morton (1995).