Only a small percentage of well-capitalized smallholders are able to sell maize to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) and take advantage of the maize price support. For example, in the 2007/08 marketing year, only 10% of smallholders sold maize to the FRA and these households had larger landholdings,...

Accurate information on farmer and consumer behavior is the foundation for Identifying public investments and policies that can effectively promote national food security and income growth objectives. This report synthesizes recent findings on smallholder crop marketing behavior and urban...

Although agriculture is widely regarded as a major channel through which poverty and food insecurity in Africa can be curtailed, the continent’s agricultural productivity has been abysmal. Farm input subsidy is becoming a popular policy tool that African governments are using to improve...

In 1998, the Sara Lee Corporation decided to restructure its value chain by diverging from manufacturing many of its products to outsourcing and concentrating its resources on developing and managing its brands. In light of this change, Bil Mar Foods, a subsidiary of Sara Lee located in Zeeland,...

The purpose of this study was to develop a general model for strategy making in business organizations. The model was applied to a Norwegian farmer sales cooperative which market fruits and vegetables in order to test the model's feasability of developing a consistent approach to business...

A contract has recently been completed between the Economics Research Service of the U.S.D.A. and Michigan State University, under which the Department of Agricultural Economics at MSU. will analyze prospective changes in agricultural trade of E.F.T.A. countries. This study will be complementary...

This paper has been elaborated in an effort to set the basis for a research on a semi-collective production cooperative program in Panama. Three aspects are considered to be important when studying the program: the internal organization of the semi-collective cooperatives to be analyzed; the role...

The link between strategic planning and firm performance has been studied for over two decades. This paper examines this link, with emphasis on small agribusiness firms. A model of strategic planning and performance is developed and applied to small agribusiness firms. Implications for research...

In 1998, the Sara Lee Corporation implemented a corporate strategy of deverticalization. Bil Mar Foods, Inc., a subsidiary of Sara Lee responsible for the processing of packaged meat products, followed the strategy by shutting down its turkey slaughter facility in Zeeland, Michigan. As a...