Public sector roles in agri-food chains - Regulatory strategies and functions

Public sector roles in agri-food chains - Regulatory strategies and functions in food safety, corporate social responsibility and seed sector development 

Authors: Frank Joosten and Derek Eaton

Markets, Chains and Sustainable Development Strategy & Policy paper #1. Wageningen University. March 2007

The development, organization, and management of commodity production, processing and marketing arrangements are now recognized as primarily a private sector responsibility. While the direct involvement of governments in value chains has diminished, there are also still public sector roles in creating favourable conditions for agricultural sector development, for promoting sustainable management of natural resources, for fostering public-private cooperation and for enabling inclusion of smallholders and small enterprises. This implies that new approaches and intervention strategies, comprising an ‘enabling environment', are required to fulfi l these roles under privatized, deregulated and globalising market conditions.

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