Recent increases in the levels and volatility of food prices have created significant challenges to efforts to reduce levels of food insecurity both at national and household levels. As a result, significant political attention has been given to the promotion of improvements in food staples productivity in developing countries, both to offset the rapidly increasing costs of food imports, and to stimulate increased incomes and hence food security status at the household level. This attention has been manifested both at country level, with many developing countries placing food staples at the centre of their agriculture development programmes, and at the global level, for example in the context of the recent G20 initiatives.
A central focus of these initiatives has been to develop and advocate mechanisms that will result in increased levels of production by smallholder producers through the adoption of productivity — enhancing technology underpinned by improved research and development, facilitated access to critical inputs and production — related risk reduction measures. Less attention has been given to the significant heterogeneity of smallholder producers, both in terms of their access to the productive assets required to be able to increase production and, perhaps more importantly, in terms of their willingness to increase production for sale.
A key message of this report is that without better understanding the determinants of smallholders’ participation in agricultural markets, and formulating appropriate measures to facilitate improved participation, initiatives seeking to promote the adoption of productivity enhancing technology by smallholder producers are likely to have limited success.