Grain Market and Rural Livelihoods

Agriculture Development Led Industrialization (ADLI) has been government development strategy since 1990s, aiming to transform the agriculture sector first and the industrialization to follow it. The agriculture sector in Ethiopia, like in most other African counties, is dominated by subsistence oriented smallholder sub-sector, mostly dependent on rain and traditional ways of production. The agricultural commodity marketing system on the other hand is characterized by poor marketing infrastructures (roads, market information, store, etc) leading to a 40 to 60% of marketing price difference between farm gate and consumer price, leading again to a loss to the rural producers whose livelihoods are based on agriculture and high costs to urban consumer who spent 65% of its income on food. Drawing on interviews with different actors, surveys and review of literature - the structural organization, conduct and performance of the grain market and its impacts on the rural livelihoods are discussed. This book may be useful for researchers and university students who want to elaborate on the grain market study particularly focusing on smallholders in developing countries.