Authors: Tracey-White, J.
Produced by: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2005)
 
Food supply and distribution systems in most developing countries are undergoing major changes following rapid urban population growth. This guide offers a simple planning methodology and framework to assist policy makers, non-government organisations and farmer groups to respond to these changes and ensure that rural producers have better access to markets for their products. It focuses on produce flows and the identification of how marketing channels work.

The guide covers evaluating existing marketing systems and identifying infrastructure improvements to meet the needs of expanding towns and cities. As well as offering an outline of key issues in the marketing of rural produce, the guide provides methodologies for:

• undertaking a market linkage study
• participatory approaches to identifying and assessing farmers' marketing practices
• drawing up improvement proposals, using a regional planning approach on which to base marketing infrastructure investments
• assessing supply constraints and potential flows through the marketing channels
• estimating rural supply and the demand from urban areas and intermediate centres
• undertaking participatory monitoring and evaluation
• participatory agricultural marketing surveys
• approaches to evaluating rural transport proposals

Each topic chapter includes forms, survey questions and checklists as a guide to activities such as community participatory rural appraisals (PRAs), preliminary market inventory, consumer surveys and produce movement surveys.

Case studies examples are drawn from countries such as Bangladesh, Albania, Nepal, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

The guide also provides references for previous FAO guides on the planning and design of wholesale, retail and rural markets.

Source: Eldis.
Available online at: http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC22596 [1]