Small scale farmers have traditionally been growing local foods on a subsistence level. The advent of new technologies led to increased production and the surpluses were being marketed primarily in the local markets. But the opening-up of the economy to global players and changing consumer food demands has had disastrous effects – agriculture became more market oriented, farmers lost control over their food systems to big agri-businesses and local foods got replaced by globally tradable commodities.
In such situations, a number of market models and institutions have been emerging for small farmers. This issue of LEISA India focuses on such local alternatives which enable small farmers to get higher share in the consumer price.
Editorial – Farmers and markets
Farmer producer organisations – Enhancing farmers share in the consumer price
R Sanjeev , R S S Hopper , P Nandeesa
Linking markets for better incomes
B Anuradha , L Uday Kiran , Sreenath Dixit , K A Gopinath
Rythu Bazaars – The alternative marketing channel
Subhendu Dey
Harvesting happiness from wastelands
Puspalata Pani
“We need to support what farmers are already doing”
Laura Eggens
Devpasli – A tribal farmers cooperative
A K Chourasia , Meena Gokhale , Raghvendra Dubey , Arvind Patel
Flavia Castro , Cornelia Kirchner
Forest Roots Network – Strengthening links between producers and consumers
Nina Abigail Caligiorne Cruz , Fabricio Vassalli Zanelli , Heitor Mancini Teixeira , Irene Maria Cardoso
Seema G Prasad
The Narayana Reddy Column: Its time to look for local alternatives
Group Farming: A community farming initiative
Seema Gupta , Ganesh Parida
