Agriculture as a Source of Business Opportunities

Think here of supplying the supermarkets of Mexico or Beijing with fresh produce, exporting to Europe cut flowers from Ethiopia and green beans from Kenya, sweet peas from the highlands of Guatemala to the Safeways in the United States, and soybeans and biofuels from Brazil to the booming Chinese market. These are major business opportunities, that were often made possible by wise public investments in research to secure comparative advantage and by market infrastructure to support these transactions.

The challenge here is to turn these business opportunities into instruments for poverty reduction. This can be done by helping smallholders be part of the market booms, or by rural workers finding employment in agriculture and in the agro-processing sector. The Chile model where exports of fruits and wine to the whole world create major sources of employment in the agro-processing sector, especially for women, provides one of the most accomplished examples.

Reference

Byerlee, D., (2007), Agriculture for Development: the World Bank's 2008 World Development Report