Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Governance, power and policy making
Promoting agriculture for development presents a serious hallenge of managing
multiple agendas and the collective interests of formal and informal institutions (the
state, the private sector, and civil society), together with their inter-relationships, ob-
ligations, processes, mehanisms and diferences. It is precisely at this interface that
governance, economic investment, power and policy-making converge and play crit-
ical roles. On governance, it is important to establish safeguards against risks, and as-
surances for the wellbeing and social and economic benefits of smallholders, where
the state has an important role in inluencing tehnology and policy options. hus,
external aid and delivery models, and the state's policy guidelines, are important is-
sues (World Bank, 2007; Royal Society, 2009). To ahieve rapid agricultural and rural
growth requires a range of complementary investments across the broad spectrum of
agricultural production systems, from the large mehanized, more intensive systems
to smallholder units. Thus, questions about the best mix of public and private sector
investments in irrigation and water management, rural roads, agricultural finance
and extension services, among others, for the more intensive systems assume great
importance (Lele
et al.
, 2010).
Food supply hains
he food supply hain (FSC) encompasses all those activities that lie between on-
farm production and the point of consumption. FSCs have experienced fundamental
hange since 1950, becoming increasingly global in extent and marked by upward
trends in scale of production, number of lines of manufactured products and levels
of economic concentration by sector. The governance of FSCs has, consequently, be-
come more complex and multi-scalar, involving many public, private and civil soci-
ety actors (Lang
et al.
, 2009). During the last two decades it has become increasingly
apparent that the primary locus of power within the FSC has moved steadily down-
stream towards the buying desks of the major corporate food retailers (Vorley, 2003).
Three-quarters of food sales in most industrialized countries now passes through su-
permarket hekouts. his has drawn critics to highlight the environmental implica-
tions of extended supply hains designed to ahieve year-round provision at the low-
est cost. Yet, this retail format is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide, with
rapid growth rates in many developing countries (Reardon and Gulati, 2008), and
concerns raised about the dietary implications (Hawkes, 2008).
