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The inclusiveness of smallholder cocoa farmers in the international cocoa value chain is addressed in the context of institutional voids through linkages with different business models in the region of Bali, West-Sumatra and West-Sulawesi. Being the third highest producer of cocoa, local farmers have a high dependency on cocoa cultivation; however, they lack policies that foster and reward sustainable high-quality cocoa according to international standards. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

An explanatory multiple-case study design assessed the relevance of partnerships in contributing to sustainable local development and inclusiveness for smallholder farmers. The selected business models, business supported, NGO supported and government supported, are evaluated through improved access to finance, training, technology, subsidized inputs and markets.

The paper found that a linkage with a business-supported model, here BT COCOA, achieves the best results in terms of improved yields, quality and farmer’s welfare, indicating improved inclusiveness via successful process upgrading. Yet, future cooperation between stakeholders should improve on access to information and finance.

The research is a relative research, comparing three models of inclusiveness within one sector (cocoa) in predefined regions of Indonesia. Future research should test the proposed propositions in other agricultural sectors.

The paper showcases the effect of support model affiliation for smallholder farmer inclusiveness and the circumvention of institutional voids. It selects the business model as best suitable to achieve smallholder inclusiveness, as well a need to prioritize institutional voids.

The research is assessing three models addressing inclusiveness applying value chain assessment tools to measure inclusiveness.

This study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the oil palm smallholders' income, which includes both on-farm and off-farm resources.

This study used a simultaneous equations system for arranging the oil palm household economic model.

The results showed that the negative effect of demand disruption (decreasing of household income) is more than supply disruption (production declining). Declining household income due to COVID-19 caused farmer households to have no access to both basic need and other goods.

The samples for before-pandemic data differed from the situation during COVID-19 in both the location and the person due to technical constraints in research sites.

The main contribution of this study was providing an empirical understanding of how the COVID-19 pandemic influences the economic behavior of the most vulnerable entities in the Indonesian palm oil industry (oil palm smallholder farmers' households). This study would provide baseline information on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy of oil palm smallholder's household income.

This study aims to construct models to classify independent smallholder farmers’ (ISFs) plantation suitability and its competitiveness index. It proposes the models with the objective to accommodate ISFs as the main source of raw material for the palm oil industry. It was predicted that the supply of oil palm fresh fruit bunch would depend on ISFs’ plantations due to the government policy that restricts the expansion of the plantations.

The study was designed using a geographic information system approach and analytical hierarchy process for mapping the suitability of smallholder farmers’ oil palm plantation in the Kampar Regency. The competitiveness index was measured using a modified Diamond Porter framework and competitiveness index quantification. The model was conducted on 177 respondents from five districts in Kampar Regency.

The results indicated that it mapped 128,936.759 hectares area of ISFs’ oil palm plantation in the Kampar Regency. The results of plantation suitability showed that only 13.88% of plantations owned by ISFs were potential, 71.21% of them were in the developing category and 14.91% of plantations were non-potential. The competitiveness index showed there were only 7.91% of them at the developed competitive position, 73.45% at developing a competitive position and 18.64% at the least-developed position.

The paper includes implications for developing ISFs’ capacity building and best practice management for oil palm optimization, resulting in bargaining positions and social well-being.

The study had succeeded to visualize ISFs’ plantation area suitability and competitiveness at Kampar Regency, Riau Province. The model provides a brisk understanding and valuable information about ISFs’ conditions spatially. It offers specific outcomes and becomes important in optimize and develop the existing plantations at the right time and exact location.

In the contribution the authors show how the concept of community-powered co-innovation can successfully be implemented in order to improve the situation of small-scale farmers. The purpose of this paper is to focus on developing countries in consideration of economic, social and ecological sustainability aspects.

All findings are based on an in-depth, detailed examination of one specific case. The case study approach allows analysis of innovation and cooperation within rural societies while considering their contextual conditions.

The case study goes back to an initiative begun in 2011. Stakeholders from Nepal were connected to five Austrian distributors and nine German distributors selling their products in Austria and Germany. In total, about 600 Nepalese farmers are cultivating on average less than 1 ha of agricultural land each. A German entrepreneur founded the first Demeter farm in Nepal and founded an ethical business in Nepal to cooperate with the farmers there. The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) acted as a knowledge broker. The whole initiative followed the Triple Helix concept.

The study shows qualitative results out of an individual initiative. The findings are of a qualitative nature, they are not necessarily transferable to comparable cases. The outcome has to be interpreted as hypotheses, further research activities are required for broader application.

The case study shows how the authors can sustainably improve the economic and social situation of underprivileged market participants in the least developed countries by establishing a teaching-based cooperation between a university, an ethical business and farmers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of farmers’ risk perceptions regarding rubber farming on their land use choices, including rubber specialization and crop diversification.

A cross-sectional survey data of some 600 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna in Southwest China is employed. This paper develops a general conceptual framework that incorporates a subjective risk item into a model of farmers’ land use choices, thereby developing four econometric models to estimate the role of risk perceptions, and applies instrumental variables to control for the endogeneity of risk perceptions.

The results demonstrate that risk perceptions play an important role in smallholders’ decision-making regarding land use strategies to address potential risks in rubber farming. Smallholders with higher risk perceptions specialize in rubber farming less often and are more likely to diversify their land use, thereby contributing to local environmental conservation in terms of agrobiodiversity. The land use choices of smallholder rubber farmers are also associated with ethnicity, household wealth, off-farm employment, land tenure status, altitude and rubber farming experience.

This study contributes to a better understanding of the implications of farmers’ risk perceptions and shows entry points for improving the sustainability of rubber-based land use systems.

Despite the vast potential of mobile phone use, grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use has attracted insufficient attention among scholars in Tanzania. The study examined factors influencing satisfaction with mobile phone use for accessing agricultural marketing information.

The study used a cross-sectional research design and a mixed research method. Structured questionnaire and focus group discussions were used to collect primary data from 400 sampled grape smallholder farmers. Data were analysed inferentially involving two-way analysis of variance, ordinal logistic regression and thematic analysis.

The findings indicate a statistically significant disparity in grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction across different types of agricultural marketing information. Grape smallholder farmers exhibited higher satisfaction levels concerning information on selling time compared to all other types of agricultural marketing information (price, buyers, quality and quantity). Factors influencing grape smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with mobile phone use were related to perceived usefulness, ease of use, experience and cost.

This study contributes to scientific knowledge by providing actionable insights for formulating unique strategies for smallholder farmers’ satisfaction with agricultural marketing information.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of savings mobilization on access to credit among smallholder farmers’ in the Birim central municipality of Ghana.

A cross-sectional primary data set was used to estimate the factors influencing smallholder farmers’ access to credit and size of loan to be borrowed using the IV-Probit and IV-Tobit model.

The results of the study revealed that savings mobilization has a positive significant impact on access to credit and the total amount of credit one can borrow as well. Other control variables such as transaction cost and farm size depicted a negative significant impact on access to credit. Land ownership, member of an association, household size, years of farming experience and education also showed a positive significant impact on access to credit.

The paper only examined the savings effect on credit accessibility among smallholder farmers in one of the municipality’s in the Eastern region of Ghana. Future research should consider all or many municipality for an informed generalization of findings.

This paper provides evidence that smallholder farmers knowledge on the financial market is poor and it would require the policymakers or NGOs to organize financial management training programs so that the farmers high ignorance of the financial market will significantly reduce.

Although existing studies have examined smallholder farmers’ access to credit, the unique contribution of this paper is the analysis of the impact of saving mobilization on credit accessibility in Ghana, a major access to credit determinant in the financial market. In addition, those researchers who factored in savings as an access to credit determinant did not also consider the casual relationship between these two variables, thus, the present of endogeneity of which this paper does.

Despite the potential for co-operatives to improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods, membership in the co-operatives is low. This study examines factors that influence smallholder farmers' decisions to join agricultural co-operatives.

This study involved a survey of 1,274 smallholder chicken farmers. The data were analysed through a two-sample t-test of association, Pearson's Chi-square test and binary probit regression model.

The results suggest that farming as the main source of income, owning a chicken house, education attainment, attending training or accessing information, vaccination of goats and keeping a larger herd of goats are the key factors which significantly influence co-operative membership. However, gender, age, household size, distance to the nearest agrovet, vaccinating chicken and the number of chickens kept do not influence co-operative membership.

The survey did not capture data on some variables which have been shown to influence co-operative membership. Nevertheless, the results show key explanatory variables which influence membership in co-operatives.

These findings have implications for development agencies that seek to use co-operatives for agricultural development and improvement of smallholder farmers' livelihoods. The agencies can use the results to initiate interventions relevant for different types of smallholder farmers through co-operatives.

This study highlights the influence of smallholder farmers' financial investments in farming and the extent of commercialisation on co-operative membership. Due to low membership in co-operatives, recognising the heterogeneity of smallholder farmers is the key in agricultural development interventions through co-operative membership.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2022-0165.

Several years after the regularization of microfinance activity in Côte d’Ivoire, smallholder farmers’ access to microfinance credits still remains marginal. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze key determinants of access to microfinance credit in Sassandra-Marahoué District.

A total of 150 smallholder farmers were randomly sampled using an interview guide and semi-structured questionnaires. Univariate statistics and Probit binary modeling were employed for data analyses.

Results revealed that socio-economic/demographic characteristics of smallholder farmers and credit requirements imposed by microfinance institutions (MFIs) are key determinants of smallholder farmers’ access to microfinance credits in the district.

Although, the authors shed light on the determinants of microfinance credit access for smallholder farmers in this district, the study focused on a single source of financial credit. Future research will need to explore the determinants of credit demand and the choice between different sources of rural credits in Côte d’Ivoire.

The findings suggest that MFIs seldom take into account smallholder farmers who are not engaged in off-farm income-generating activities and savings account; and those with low level of education. Sensitization programs on the importance of savings mobilization and credit policy by MFIs will potentially increase smallholder’s knowledge on credit access requirements and thereby increased access.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study investigating determinants of smallholder farmers’ access to microfinance credits in Côte d’Ivoire specifically in the Sassandra-Marahoué District. The results of this study will serve as a guide for MFIs for improving smallholder farmers’ access to credit.