IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v34y2009i1p39-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of collective action in the marketing of underutilized plant species: Lessons from a case study on minor millets in South India

Author

Listed:
  • Gruère, Guillaume
  • Nagarajan, Latha
  • King, E.D.I. Oliver

Abstract

Underutilized plant species are generally defined by their unexploited economic potential, making them an appropriate focus for market development. This paper analyses the role of collective action in the process of market development for minor millets, an underutilized plant species, in the Kolli Hills of Tamil Nadu, India. Based on a series of focus group discussions, we analyze the role and involvement of self-help groups in the minor millet marketing chain recently set up by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. We then compare the role of collective action in this new market with the cases of marketing chains for cassava and organic pineapples, two cash crops with expanding production in the same area. Our analysis shows the critical role of collective action as a necessary but not sufficient condition for the successful commercialization of underutilized plant species for the benefit of the poor and the conservation of agro-biodiversity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gruère, Guillaume & Nagarajan, Latha & King, E.D.I. Oliver, 2009. "The role of collective action in the marketing of underutilized plant species: Lessons from a case study on minor millets in South India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 39-45, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:1:p:39-45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-9192(08)00078-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elizabeth Finnis, 2007. "The political ecology of dietary transitions: Changing production and consumption patterns in the Kolli Hills, India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 24(3), pages 343-353, September.
    2. Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & DiGregorio, Monica & McCarthy, Nancy, 2004. "Methods for studying collective action in rural development," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 197-214, December.
    3. Poulton, Colin & Dorward, Andrew & Kydd, Jonathan, 2010. "The Future of Small Farms: New Directions for Services, Institutions, and Intermediation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1413-1428, October.
    4. Bebbington, Anthony, 1996. "Organizations and intensifications: Campesino federations, rural livelihoods and agricultural technology in the Andes and Amazonia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 1161-1177, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giacomo Pallante & Adam Drucker, 2014. "Niche Markets for Agrobiodiversity Conservation: Preference and Scale Heterogeneity Effects on Nepalese Consumers’ WTP for Finger Millet Products," SEEDS Working Papers 1414, SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies, revised May 2014.
    2. Raghu, Prabhakaran T. & Das, Sukanya & Ravi, S. Bala & King, E.D. Israel Oliver, 2012. "Use of Contingent Valuation to Assess Farmer Preference for On-farm Conservation of Minor Millets: Case from South India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 67(3), pages 1-14.
    3. Dennis Etemesi Olumeh & Dagmar Mithöfer, 2024. "Impact of collective action on household welfare: Empirical evidence from baobab collectors in Malawi," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 385-411, June.
    4. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Drucker, Adam G. & Pascual, Unai & Raghu, Prabhakaran T. & King, E.D. Israel Oliver, 2013. "Estimating compensation payments for on-farm conservation of agricultural biodiversity in developing countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 110-123.
    5. Prabhakaran Raghu & Sukanya Das & S. Ravi & E.D.Israel King, 2013. "Assessing Farmer ’s Willingness to Participate in the On - farm Conservation of Minor Millet using Direct Compensation Payment," Working Papers id:5329, eSocialSciences.
    6. Vera Teresa Foti & Alessandro Scuderi & Giuseppe Stella & Giuseppe Timpanaro, 2019. "Consumer purchasing behaviour for "biodiversity-friendly" vegetable products: increasing importance of informal relationships," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 65(9), pages 404-414.
    7. Gea Galluzzi & Isabel López Noriega, 2014. "Conservation and Use of Genetic Resources of Underutilized Crops in the Americas—A Continental Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-38, February.
    8. Tenkasi Raghu, Prabhakaran & Das, Sukanya & S, Bala Ravi & E.D.I, Oliver King, 2012. "Assessing Farmer’s Willingness to Participate in the On-farm Conservation of Minor Millet using Direct Compensation Payment," MPRA Paper 45079, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Liu, H. & Deng, H. & Xu, Z. & Lu, W., 2018. "Emerging Agricultural Cooperatives and The Structural Change of Crop Production in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277324, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Lowitt, Kristen & Hickey, Gordon M. & Ganpat, Wayne & Phillip, Leroy, 2015. "Linking Communities of Practice with Value Chain Development in Smallholder Farming Systems," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 363-373.
    11. Evans Ngenoh & Barnabas K. Kurgat & Hillary K. Bett & Sindu W. Kebede & Wolfgang Bokelmann, 2019. "Determinants of the competitiveness of smallholder African indigenous vegetable farmers in high-value agro-food chains in Kenya: A multivariate probit regression analysis," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-17, December.
    12. Pauline Chivenge & Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi & Albert T. Modi & Paramu Mafongoya, 2015. "The Potential Role of Neglected and Underutilised Crop Species as Future Crops under Water Scarce Conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-27, May.
    13. Pallante, Giacomo & Drucker, Adam G. & Sthapit, Sajal, 2016. "Assessing the potential for niche market development to contribute to farmers' livelihoods and agrobiodiversity conservation: Insights from the finger millet case study in Nepal," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 92-105.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Markelova, Helen & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Hellin, Jon & Dohrn, Stephan, 2009. "Collective action for smallholder market access," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-7, February.
    2. Biggeri, Mario & Carraro, Alessandro & Ciani, Federico & Romano, Donato, 2022. "Disentangling the impact of a multiple-component project on SDG dimensions: The case of durum wheat value chain development in Oromia (Ethiopia)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    3. Mukundi, Eric & Mathenge, Mary K. & Ngigi, Margaret, 2013. "Sweet Potato Marketing Among Smallholder Farmers: The Role of Collective Action," 2013 Fourth International Conference, September 22-25, 2013, Hammamet, Tunisia 160679, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    4. Bikkina,Nalini & Turaga, Rama Mohana & Bhamoriya, Vaibhav, 2015. "Farmer Producer Organizations as Farmer Collectives: A Case Study from India," IIMA Working Papers WP2015-01-05, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    5. Crespo, Joan & Réquier-Desjardins, Denis & Vicente, Jérôme, 2014. "Why can collective action fail in Local Agri-food Systems? A social network analysis of cheese producers in Aculco, Mexico," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 165-177.
    6. Lipy Adhikari & Sabarnee Tuladhar & Abid Hussain & Kamal Aryal, 2019. "Are Traditional Food Crops Really ‘Future Smart Foods?’ A Sustainability Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, September.
    7. Ola, Oreoluwa & Menapace, Luisa, 2020. "A meta-analysis understanding smallholder entry into high-value markets," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. Lili Li & Yiwu Zeng & Zi Ye & Hongdong Guo, 2021. "E‐commerce development and urban‐rural income gap: Evidence from Zhejiang Province, China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(2), pages 475-494, April.
    9. Adjognon, Serge G. & Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O. & Reardon, Thomas A., 2017. "Agricultural input credit in Sub-Saharan Africa: Telling myth from facts," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 93-105.
    10. Stefani, Gianluca & Lombardi, Ginevra Virginia & Romano, Donato & Cei, Leonardo, 2017. "Grass Root Collective Action for Territorially Integrated Food Supply Chains: A Case Study from Tuscany," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 8(4), October.
    11. Hanatani, Atsushi & Fuse, Kana, 2010. "Linking Resource Users’ Perceptions and Collective Action in Commons Management," Working Papers 24, JICA Research Institute.
    12. Mei-Yin Kuan & Szu-Yung Wang & Jiun-Hao Wang, 2021. "Investigating the Association between Farmers’ Organizational Participation and Types of Agricultural Product Certifications: Empirical Evidence from a National Farm Households Survey in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-18, August.
    13. Klasen, Stephan & Meyer, Katrin M. & Dislich, Claudia & Euler, Michael & Faust, Heiko & Gatto, Marcel & Hettig, Elisabeth & Melati, Dian N. & Jaya, I. Nengah Surati & Otten, Fenna & Pérez-Cruzado, Cés, 2016. "Economic and ecological trade-offs of agricultural specialization at different spatial scales," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 111-120.
    14. Verena Preusse & Nils Nölke & Meike Wollni, 2024. "Urbanization and adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in the rural‐urban interface of Bangalore, India," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 72(2), pages 167-198, June.
    15. Hadjielias, Elias & Christofi, Michael & Tarba, Shlomo, 2021. "Knowledge hiding and knowledge sharing in small family farms: A stewardship view," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 279-292.
    16. Matias Ramirez & Ian Clarke & Laurens Klerkx, 2018. "Analysing intermediary organisations and their influence on upgrading in emerging agricultural clusters," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1314-1335, September.
    17. Harry Anthony Patrinos & Emmanuel Skoufias, 2007. "Economic Opportunities for Indigenous Peoples in Latin America : Conference Edition," World Bank Publications - Reports 8019, The World Bank Group.
    18. Daniel Kangogo & Domenico Dentoni & Jos Bijman, 2020. "Determinants of Farm Resilience to Climate Change: The Role of Farmer Entrepreneurship and Value Chain Collaborations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, January.
    19. Latynskiy, Evgeny & Berger, Thomas, 2012. "An Agent-Based Network Approach For Understanding, Analyzing And Supporting Rural Producer Organizations In Agriculture," 52nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 26-28, 2012 137383, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    20. Beatriz Carmona-Moya & Antonia Calvo-Salguero & María-del-Carmen Aguilar-Luzón, 2021. "EIMECA: A Proposal for a Model of Environmental Collective Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:1:p:39-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.