In November 2005, ECART was approached by IFAP for developing a research support programme for IFAP, mobilising their experts within the affiliated research institutes. In a meeting in February 2006, IFAP and ECART agreed on the outlines of such a partnership. From 24th to 26th of October 2007 the IFAP-ECART Workshop on “Empowering
Smallholders Farmers in the Market” held in Tunis to elaborate on the research proposal.

The economic and political context of agricultural markets in developing countries has undergone profound changes over the last few years. Government policies are moving away from the direct management of agricultural markets, and focus more on indirect regulation for markets to work for the poor (WDR 2001). These policy initiatives define the context within which farming business can be done, as well as the framework within which smallholder farmers’ economic organisations and institutions can be developed.
The potential and room for manoeuvre of farmers’ organisations to provide economic benefit to their members is to a large extent determined by the institutional environment of the organisations. Policies, rules and regulations that together make up this institutional
environment have differential outcomes for farmers vis-à-vis other groups in society. Therefore, pro-active advocacy activities are needed to adjust the institutional environment [...]

View this project on Agro-Info.net