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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.

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.

Smallholder farmers often deal with lack of information and knowledge, weak financial capacity and limited collaboration and network orientation. This is hampering their ability to adopt or co-develop innovation, and to participate in value chain exchanges. This calls for using intermediary organizations. The purpose of this paper is to understand how innovation intermediaries engage with smallholder farmers and provoke value chain reconfigurations.

The authors systematically review literature to draw cases on intermediaries operating in the agri-food sector in several geographical and socio-economic contexts. The authors then adopt a theory building from cases approach to identify relationships between smallholder farmers and innovation intermediaries, and their effects in the reconfiguration of value chains.

Consultants, knowledge transfer organizations (KTOs) and broker organizations (BOs) are the three typologies of intermediaries identified. While consultants facilitate change by modifying the way smallholders engage in transactions with their buyers and input providers, KTOs focus on farmers engagement in the value chain by stimulating the formation of knowledge platform or partnership. BOs operate in a similar way as compared to KTOs but mainly by forming and facilitating access to informal networks.

The authors build a framework in which relationships between typologies of intermediary organizations and types of innovation processes are connected with changes at value chain level.

The authors highlight how diverse forms of intermediations may stimulate not only smallholder farmers’ participation in innovation networks but also value chain reconfigurations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate borrowing motivation, credit access barriers and their impacts on income of smallholder farmers engaging in cinnamon value chain development in Northwestern Vietnam.

A multistage sampling technique using a structural questionnaire and in-depth interviews was applied for collecting primary data from farmers and relevant stakeholders. The Propensity Score Matching was employed to analyze access barriers and examine whether relaxing these barriers can improve farmer income. To deal with the issue of model uncertainty and further increase the robustness of results, Bayesian model average and the bootstrapping approach were applied.

To fulfill the certain quality standards of cinnamon products which are later used in the medicinal and food industry, farmers as primary producers need credit for intensive investment to increase the value of their products. Still, there are 25.36 percent of farmers who have access constraints to formal credit. In the credit received group, 24.56 percent have not received full credit as demanded. Access problems are relevant to lack of collateral, lack of bank account holdings, inconvenient access to roads, weak chain linkage and limited organic farming. Removing credit access barriers can improve the income for farmers from cinnamon farming activities.

More detailed information on the conditions under which credit serves a more important role in creating value addition for cinnamon products can help the government establish more effective credit policies.

Great attention should be paid to smallholder farmers as primary producers in the chain for sustainable value chain development in developing and emerging economies. Policy interventions should facilitate access to bank accounts, speed up the process of granting residential land use certificates, certify organic farming and upgrade the road system. Strengthening the chain linkage can enhance smallholder farmers’ capacity to obtain credit through value chain lending development.

Empirical studies on agricultural credit from the perspective of value chain development remain scarce. A better understanding of credit access constraints allows for the positing of recommendations for policy makers to facilitate value chain lending and a medicinal plant-based agro-forestry system in similar situations.

This study aims to reconstruct how smallholder farmers implement livelihood adaptation strategies to survive and escape poverty, thereby mitigating or eliminating potential livelihood risks by utilizing their available assets.

This research employed a qualitative approach. For the collection of primary data, the researcher conducted observations and in-depth interviews and engaged with the lives of smallholder farmers during the data collection period.

Among the various livelihood adaptation strategies, only migration and profit-sharing strategies enable smallholder farmers to escape poverty. However, migration is an unsustainable adaptation strategy. When farmers move to new locations, they often resort to slash-and-burn methods for clearing land, which can lead to forest degradation and deforestation. Profit sharing is a sustainable livelihood adaptation strategy that falls into a different category. This approach can lift farmers out of poverty, increase their income and have no negative environmental impact. Other adaptation strategies include adjustments to traditional agriculture, both on and off-farm diversification, involving the family in income generation, reducing farming costs, practicing frugality in post-harvest processes, converting land from coffee cultivation to other crops and borrowing money and selling owned assets. Smallholder farmers implement these strategies to survive the existing economic conditions.

The profit-sharing strategy was a novel livelihood adaptation approach that previous studies had yet to uncover at the research site. In this strategy, farmers assume the roles of both managers and laborers simultaneously during farming, while toke (the capital owners) play the role of farming funders. The generated profit is then shared between farmers and toke based on the agreement established at the outset of their collaboration.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of a growth enhancement support scheme (GESS) on the enabling environment of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The main aim is to investigate the impact of the GESS on access to rural farm credit and the transport cost of smallholder farmers in the agricultural transformation agenda (ATA) in Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 1,200 were sampled across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.

The results from the use of a double-hurdle model indicate that the GESS has a significant impact on farmers’ access to credit, but does not significantly impact on rural farm transport cost, which subsequently influences the price of food in the country.

This implies that if the Federal Government of Nigeria is to work toward an ideal agricultural transformation agenda, transport networks should be closely aligned with the GESS priorities to provide connectivity to rural areas that provide most of the country’s agricultural output.

This research adds to the literature on the agricultural and rural development debate in developing countries. It concludes that embracing a rural finance and transportation infrastructure should form the foundation of the ATA in Nigeria, which, in turn, would provide a conducive environment for a more widespread rural economy in sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to take stock of the current state of knowledge about inclusive value-chain development (VCD) in the context of international agricultural research; and second, to draw out the implications for future research and action.

This paper is based on a review of recent research papers authored by professionals affiliated with international agricultural research centers and their partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The studies reviewed in the paper identify the opportunities emerging from new and expanding markets for agricultural products and challenges to smallholder participation in these markets. It identifies key attributes of successful value-chain interventions, emphasizing the importance of combining value-chain approaches with other approaches, including those emerging from innovation systems and rural livelihoods frameworks. Methods are offered for evaluating complex value-chain interventions.

The paper summarizes the state of knowledge as of early 2016 in a dynamic field. Important contributions to knowledge may have been made since then.

The paper summarizes the state of knowledge in the field, and identifies emerging issues and policy implications, knowledge gaps, and priorities for future applied research.

Understanding diversity amongst potential beneficiaries of land redistribution is of critical importance for both design and planning of successful land reform interventions. This study seeks to add to the existing literature on farming types, with specific emphasis on understanding diversity within a sub-group of commercially oriented or emerging smallholders.

Using a multivariate statistical analysis – principal component and cluster analyses applied to a sample of 442 commercially-oriented smallholders – five distinct clusters of emerging farmers are identified, using variables related to farmers' characteristics, income and expenditure and farm production indicators and willingness to participate in land redistribution. The five clusters are discussed in light of a predefined selection criteria that is based on the current policies and scholarly thinking.

The results suggest that there are distinct differences in farming types, and each identified cluster of farmers requires tailored support for the effective implementation of land reform. The identified homogenous sub-groups of smallholders, allows us to understand which farmers could be a better target for a successful land redistribution policy.

Most of the existing typology studies in South Africa tend to focus on general smallholders and in the Eastern Cape province; this study extends the literature by focussing on specific prime beneficiaries of land reform in three provinces. This study uses a more detailed dataset than the Statistics general and agricultural household surveys.

There is a contradictive debate on factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among scholars. This study aims to examine factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness for accessing agricultural marketing information.

A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used with 400 smallholder grape farmers. The use of structured questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews helped to collect primary data. Data analysis was subjected to descriptive, ordinal logistic regression and thematic approaches.

This study found that farmers were mostly aware of voice calls helping to access buyers and price information. Education, age and sex were the critical factors influencing mobile phone usage awareness among grape smallholder farmers.

This study contributes to scientific knowledge by providing an understanding of the perceived factors on mobile phone usage awareness within the grape subsector to inform policymakers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse factors that determine farmers’ intention to commercialise vegetable-based agribusiness ventures in rural areas and assess the effect of commercialisation on farmers’ income.

The study used a regression approach. Market participation and farmers’ income were hypothesised to be dependent on other external factors. This study employed data compiled from a quantitative survey of 357 farm households located in four major vegetable producing regions of rural East Java and Bali, Indonesia.

Results indicate that household attributes, business environment, supporting facilities and farm characteristics determined farmers to commercialise vegetable farming. Access to credit, seed technology and farm site played high contribution to the market participation. Ultimately, commercial vegetable farming provides an economic advantage regarding increased income. Land fragmentation and status of landholding were identified to influence the net revenue of vegetable farming.

This study has a limitation concerning the number of samples and the availability of data and information. The number of samples is 357 which is about 4 per cent of the total population.

Establishment of vegetable agribusiness terminals with all market infrastructures, adequate access to market information, credit and human capital investment through training and extension services are also required, will boost market participation. Re-structuring land ownership might be the best step to augment farmers’ income, through consolidation of fragmented fertile lands devoted to intensive vegetable farming.

This study was purposely conducted in rural areas where there were subsistence farmers, as this is to improve farmers’ income by commercialising vegetable crops. A novel feature of this finding is the role of access to credit in the commercialisation of vegetable farming and the impact of landholding status on the profitability of intensive farming of high-valued vegetables.