Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming

Small-scale farmers are often encouraged to adopt innovations that generate significant social benefits, including improved nutrition, food safety, and environmental sustainability, yet market mechanisms frequently fail to reward these contributions. Adoption of such socially desirable practices rem...

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Autores principales: Abate, Gashaw T., Baye, Kaleab, Bernard, Tanguy, Chamberlin, Jordan, Hill, Ruth Vargas, Moussadek, Rachid, Senghor, Lamine
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: CGIAR System Organization 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179063
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author Abate, Gashaw T.
Baye, Kaleab
Bernard, Tanguy
Chamberlin, Jordan
Hill, Ruth Vargas
Moussadek, Rachid
Senghor, Lamine
author_browse Abate, Gashaw T.
Baye, Kaleab
Bernard, Tanguy
Chamberlin, Jordan
Hill, Ruth Vargas
Moussadek, Rachid
Senghor, Lamine
author_facet Abate, Gashaw T.
Baye, Kaleab
Bernard, Tanguy
Chamberlin, Jordan
Hill, Ruth Vargas
Moussadek, Rachid
Senghor, Lamine
author_sort Abate, Gashaw T.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Small-scale farmers are often encouraged to adopt innovations that generate significant social benefits, including improved nutrition, food safety, and environmental sustainability, yet market mechanisms frequently fail to reward these contributions. Adoption of such socially desirable practices remains below the social optimum due to unobservable attributes, high verification costs, limited production scale, and misaligned private incentives. We propose a simple framework that highlights four key dimensions influencing adoption: returns to farmers (R), adoption costs (C), inspection costs (I), and transaction scale (Q). Interventions can target these dimensions individually or in combination, such as reducing verification costs, aggregating production, subsidizing adoption, or enhancing market premiums. We illustrate this framework through three case studies: aflatoxin mitigation, biofortified crop adoption, and conservation agriculture, demonstrating how technology, policy, and market-based instruments can be coordinated to incentivize the adoption of socially beneficial innovations and practices. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary approaches, integrated public and private actions, and dynamic interventions that account for both immediate and long-term social returns. By explicitly connecting adoption incentives with verification and market constraints, the framework guides research and policy toward more effective strategies to reward smallholders for their contributions to public goods and sustainable development.
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spelling CGSpace1790632025-12-20T02:11:11Z Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming Abate, Gashaw T. Baye, Kaleab Bernard, Tanguy Chamberlin, Jordan Hill, Ruth Vargas Moussadek, Rachid Senghor, Lamine small-scale farming nutrition food safety return on investment frameworks Small-scale farmers are often encouraged to adopt innovations that generate significant social benefits, including improved nutrition, food safety, and environmental sustainability, yet market mechanisms frequently fail to reward these contributions. Adoption of such socially desirable practices remains below the social optimum due to unobservable attributes, high verification costs, limited production scale, and misaligned private incentives. We propose a simple framework that highlights four key dimensions influencing adoption: returns to farmers (R), adoption costs (C), inspection costs (I), and transaction scale (Q). Interventions can target these dimensions individually or in combination, such as reducing verification costs, aggregating production, subsidizing adoption, or enhancing market premiums. We illustrate this framework through three case studies: aflatoxin mitigation, biofortified crop adoption, and conservation agriculture, demonstrating how technology, policy, and market-based instruments can be coordinated to incentivize the adoption of socially beneficial innovations and practices. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary approaches, integrated public and private actions, and dynamic interventions that account for both immediate and long-term social returns. By explicitly connecting adoption incentives with verification and market constraints, the framework guides research and policy toward more effective strategies to reward smallholders for their contributions to public goods and sustainable development. 2025-12-12 2025-12-19T14:01:06Z 2025-12-19T14:01:06Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179063 en Open Access application/pdf CGIAR System Organization Abate, Gashaw T.; Baye, Kaleab; Bernard, Tanguy; Chamberlin, Jordan; Hill, Ruth Vargas; et al. 2025. Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming. CGIAR System Organization. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179063
spellingShingle small-scale farming
nutrition
food safety
return on investment
frameworks
Abate, Gashaw T.
Baye, Kaleab
Bernard, Tanguy
Chamberlin, Jordan
Hill, Ruth Vargas
Moussadek, Rachid
Senghor, Lamine
Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming
title Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming
title_full Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming
title_fullStr Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming
title_full_unstemmed Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming
title_short Rewarding the social benefits of small-scale farming
title_sort rewarding the social benefits of small scale farming
topic small-scale farming
nutrition
food safety
return on investment
frameworks
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179063
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