Traders

The following list of free, electronic resources provides rapid access to key references on the main topics of the dossier:

1. Audio-visual materials

2. Documents

1. Audio-visual materials 

• Cutting out the middleman? - Local Economic Development Podcast: Value Chain Series, Episode 5
• Eleni Gabre-Madhin: Building a commodities market in Ethiopia - Video by TEDTalks

2.  Documents

• Trading up: building cooperation between farmers and traders in Africa
  KIT, IIRR, L. Peppelenbos (coordinator) (2008)
  The potential of African traders in value chain development is examined. The combination of stronger chain relationships and stronger market institutions benefits all actors involved: farmers, traders, and consumers.
• Role of the middleman in Pakistan’s dynamic agricultural food markets
  Ramay, Shakeel Ahmad; Rana, Noreen Athar (2008)
  The middleman is criticized among researchers, policy makers, retailers, and farmers alike, but critical analysis along the supply chain reveals counterintuitive facts about his role as credit supplier and facilitating agent.
• Making the marketplace mobile: a Ghanaian software company helps farmers get a fairer deal for their crops 
  Bartlett, Sarah (2008)
  Through web pages and text messages TradeNet allows rural farmers to advertise their merchandise to an international market and find the fairest price for their crops.
• Making stronger links - Using mobile phones and the internet to improve market supply in East Africa 
  Lightfoot, Clive (2008)
  Using the internet and mobile phones, farmers in East Africa learn to work more efficiently with the traders who buy their goods. The Linking Local Learners method of learning explores how farmers can access market information and get a fairer deal.
  
• Market-driven development and poverty reduction: a value chain analysis of fresh vegetables in Kenya and Tanzania (2008) Seminar für Ländliche Entwicklung, Humboldt Univ. Berlin
  Koenig, Thomas (2008)
  The study included three major research areas: Investigation into the potential for poverty reduction within a market-driven development of the respective value chains; Analyses of the cross-border onion trade between Tanzania and Kenya; Value chain comparison of the two countries.
  
• Learning to set up a Fair Trade livestock marketing chain from Massai pastoralists to consumers in Nairobi, Kenya 
  Kibue, Michael (2007)
  A small group of pastoralists, traders, abattoir workers, butchers, market centre managers, and vendors set up the Livestock Self-Help Stakeholders Association (LISSA) to ensure fair trade practice for all concerned.
• Chain empowerment: supporting African farmers to develop markets
  KIT, IIRR, Faida MaLi (2006)
  Nineteen case studies illustrate how groups of African farmers use vertical and horizontal integration in value chains to improve their income. Horizontal integration implies more involvement in value chain management.
• Linking local learners for improved market linkages - final report First Mile project, Tanzania 
  Lightfoot, Clive & Ueli Scheuermeier(2006)
  Key to the learning of small farmers, traders, processors, and others from rural villages is the development and exchange of their local experiences and good practices via the Internet.
• Milk market access for smallholders: a case of informal milk trader groups in Kenya
  Sinja, J. et al. (2006)
  The major objectives of this study were to: (1) Identify the major determinants of traders participation in informal milk marketing groups and assess how these groups contribute to poverty reduction, especially for the welfare of women and poor farmers, (2) Identify promising institutional arrangements (IAs) that contribute to coordination of milk marketing activities and facilitate farmer participation in markets, (3) Identify the role of governments, policies and other complementary IAs.
• Middlemen as agents of change: MEDA and ECDI in Pakistan (2005) Linda Jones & Perveen Shaikh
• Associations of market traders - Their roles and potential for further development (2005) Andrew W. Shepherd; FAO
• Rural-urban linkages in practice – promoting agricultural value chains (2005) Heike Höffler & Gladys Maingi
• Investigations on building a food marketing policy evidence base in Nigeria - Briefing report (2005) Gina Porter, Fergus Lyon & Nigerian Marketing Network
• Improving market institutions and urban food supplies for the urban poor: a comparative study of Nigeria and Zambia: scoping phase [literature review] (2004) Gina Porter, Fergus Lyon, Deborah Potts & Tanya Bowyer-Bower
• Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange Limited (KACE) - Reaching the poor in rural Kenya with market information: a case study of a market information system (2004) Adrian Mukhebi
• Improving agri-food marketing in developing economies: contractual vegetable markets in Ghana (2003) Nigel Poole, A. Wayo Seini & Victor Heh
• Agricultural markets in Benin and Malawi: operation and performance of traders (2001) Marcel Fafchamps & Eleni Gabre-Madhin
  
• Market institutions, transaction costs, and social capital in the Ethiopian grain market (2001) Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin
  
• Rethinking the role of middlemen (2001) Lars-Erik Gadde & Ivan Snehota
  
• Agricultural marketing - Linking farmers to markets: Farmer-to-trader linkages (n.d.) FAO