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Elusive Empowerment: Price Information and Disintermediation in Soybean Markets in Malwa, India
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In this article, the authors argue that the very expectation of disintermediation in the soybean supply chain is misleading, since lack of information and multiple intermediaries are seen as major obstacles preventing farmers from obtaining a higher price for their produce.Abstract:
Price information provision and disintermediation have often been considered means to empower farmers, since lack of information and multiple intermediaries are seen as major obstacles preventing farmers from obtaining a higher price for their produce. Using the example of soybean in Malwa, central India, which is a cash crop that links farmers to global consumers, this article argues that the very expectation of disintermediation in the soybean supply chain is misleading. India's position in these global networks puts farmers and intermediaries in Malwa in the position of price receivers: they are unable to influence the global price of soybean or manipulate its local price in any way. In this context, providing price information has negligible impact on the final price obtained by farmers. The potential for empowerment has to be understood more broadly, by mapping out the ways in which power is exercised by various actors in the marketplace — one of which is the determination of the quality of a farmer's crop. This article maps such possibilities by examining how norms regarding quality in soybean are created and enforced, and how they are influenced by broader logics that go beyond the soybean marketplace itself.read more
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Digital Control in Value Chains: Challenges of Connectivity for East African Firms
TL;DR: In this article, the consequences of Internet connectivity in East Africa have been examined for East African firms that are part of the Globetrotter consortium, and they examine the consequences that this shift has had for East Africa firms.
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Assessing differential vulnerability of communities in the agrarian context in two districts of Maharashtra, India
TL;DR: The loss in agriculture production is the most predominant impact among many, especially in drought-prone regions of India as mentioned in this paper, and climate variability causes multiple difficulties to rural poor. Aggravati et al.
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Reconceiving the grain heap: Margins and movements on the market floor
TL;DR: In this article, the post-harvest grain heap is reconceptualised as a critical entry point and analytic for the study of contemporary commodity markets, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in an agricultural market (mandi) in Madhya Pradesh.
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Analysing the effects of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the integration of East African farmers in a value chain context
Madlen Krone,Peter Dannenberg +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a combination of conceptual considerations on ICTs, value chains, and relational proximity is used to assess how the use of ICT affects the integration of small-scale farmers into the value chains.
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Understanding farming systems and their economic performance in Telangana, India: Not all that glitters is gold
TL;DR: In this paper , the characteristics and economic performance of current farming systems in a region in Telangana, India, that has undergone a rapid transition from a subsistence orientation to market orientation are investigated.
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Book
A Brief History of Neoliberalism
TL;DR: The Neoliberal State and Neoliberalism with 'Chinese Characteristics' as mentioned in this paper is an example of the Neoliberal state in the context of Chinese characteristics of Chinese people and its relationship with Chinese culture.
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The Digital Provide: Information (Technology), Market Performance, and Welfare in the South Indian Fisheries Sector
TL;DR: In this article, mobile phone service was introduced throughout Kerala, a state in India with a large fishing industry, and the adoption of mobile phones by fishermen and wholesalers was associated with a dramatic reduction in price dispersion, the complete elimination of waste, and near-perfect adherence to the Law of One Price.
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Quality standards, conventions and the governance of global value chains
Stefano Ponte,Peter Gibbon +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that global value chains are becoming increasingly "buyer-driven" even though they are characterized by "hands-off" forms of co-ordination between "lead firms" and their immediate suppliers.
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Confronting the Coffee Crisis: Can Fair Trade, Organic, and Specialty Coffees Reduce Small-Scale Farmer Vulnerability in Northern Nicaragua?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors link changing global coffee markets to opportunities and vulnerabilities for sustaining small-scale farmer livelihoods in northern Nicaragua and suggest that participation in organic and Fair Trade networks reduces farmers' livelihood vulnerability.
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Standards as a new form of social contract? Sustainability initiatives in the coffee industry
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the dynamics of this new configuration through the case study of sustainability initiatives in the coffee sector and address four questions: (1) are these standards effective in communicating information and creating new markets? (2) To what extent do they embed elements of collective and private interests? (3) Is sustainability content actually delivered to their intended beneficiaries? (4) What is the role of public policy in addressing their shortcomings?