Markets and Rural Poverty

The 'value chain' for any particular product or service is the value added by different processes or activities at each stage of production. This set of linkages is now often truly global. Businesses, constantly trying to increase efficiency as growing competition forces firms to lower costs, engage with emerging markets on an increasing scale. At the same time, urbanisation and increasing prosperity in many developing countries have created new and expanded domestic markets for agricultural products.This book explores the place of poor people within a rich variety of value chains, focusing upon lagging, rural regions in developing countries, and how they can 'upgrade' within such chains. Upgrading is a key concept for value chain analysis and refers to the acquisition of technological capabilities and market linkages that enable firms to improve their competitiveness and move into higher-value activities. The authors examine a range of evidence to assess whether people in the 'bottom billion' , living mainly in the rural areas of low-income countries, can improve their position through productive strategies and, if so, how? This represents one of the key challenges of contemporary development economics.They propose an innovative conceptual framework of value chain upgrading for some of the most marginal producers in the poorest local economies. They demonstrate how interventions can reduce poverty and gender inequity without damaging the environment for poor people supplying a wide range of services andproducts to local, regional and global markets. This analysis is based on empirical research conducted in Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, India, Nepal, Philippines and Vietnam in addition to a systematic review of secondary evidence. The main focus is on poverty, environment and gender outcomes of upgrading interventions.