This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID’s 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Summary for Project title: R7151: Overcoming information constraints: improving horticultural marketing and technical information flows to smallholders.
For many producers, participation in sub-Saharan Africa’s market systems means taking on high
marketing risks and transaction costs. Studies in Ghana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe have helped to
clarify the causes behind these costs and develop solutions to them. The solutions include long-term
contractual relationships, which help align incentives and motivate market participants to share
information. Written buyer-seller contracts offer several advantages over verbal agreements. First,
they reduce uncertainty by specifying the terms of agreement. Second, the adoption of written
agreements boosts the emergence of informal economic institutions, creating trust between buyers
and sellers. The set of recommendations also includes improvements in the coordination functions of
local government. These guidelines can contribute to pro-poor institutional innovation in other
countries.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental
Impact. Attached PDF (9 pp.) taken from the CD.