Capacity.org: Producer organisations and value chains

The more farmers participate in value chains, and the more they benefit from higher prices, the better they can help tackle the food crisis. However, individual small farmers are often only marginal participants in value chains. Producer organisations can help farmers to strengthen their position in value chains. Therefore building the capacity of farmer organisations should be considered an important element in a wider strategy to address the global food crisis.

In this issue’s feature article, Jos Bijman and Giel Ton give an overview of the types and functions of producer organisations and the ways they can help small farmers position themselves in value chains. In the guest column, Agnes van Ardenne explains that producer organisations are also important go-betweens for governments, development agencies and industrial buyers to reach out and broker deals with farmers. Thus, building the capacity of producer organisations makes a lot of sense. But what kinds of capacity do they need to develop, and how?

Capacity.org is a web magazine intended for practitioners and policy makers who work in or on capacity development in the South.

This issue can be downloaded in PDF format or read online.

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