Concentrated economic and political power within dominant export-oriented food supply chains is both a cause and an effect of today’s unsustainable food and agricultural system. There is growing awareness that improved rural–urban linkages are an essential element in the necessary transition towards more sustainable and resilient food systems. Rural–urban linkages connect people in cities with people in the countryside on a daily basis. The links are tangible and include markets, migration flows, knowledge exchange, leisure and tourism, ecosystem services, food production and consumption.
Enhancing people’s control over their food through markets based on new rural-urban linkages, extends the role of farmers to embrace on- farm processing, direct selling and the redesign of production processes. This involves policy and initiatives that build and strengthen short and local supply chains based on trust and where the role of citizens shifts from consumers to co-producers.
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Short chains bring long-term gains September 22, 2016 - In Bolivia, an assessment of short supply chains, facilitated and certified through Participatory Guarantee Systems, helps to show how agroecology impacts both consumers and producers. Happiness is an important dimension to this story. Achocalla is a highland valley situated a few kilometres away from La Paz, Bolivia. There, small scale Read more
Theme overview – Building markets: A challenge for family farming June 22, 2013 - In a situation where transnational corporations are playing an increasingly dominant role in the world’s agri-food systems, two of the greatest challenges that family farmers face are developing strategies to improve market access, and adding value to their agricultural production. There are many successful experiences that set examples that may Read more
Markets: Learning by doing June 22, 2013 - Agrobiodiversity@knowledged aims at generating and sharing evidence and insights. At the heart of the programme is a global knowledge and experience community of organisations working on agricultural biodiversity with millions of farmers worldwide. Markets are a key entry point to scaling up practices that build on agricultural biodiversity. PELUM’s work Read more