Opportunities in Agriculture – Innovations lead the way!

It is imperative for any entrepreneurial youth to be a pioneer user of a technological innovation to reap its maximum benefit. The same is true for youth in agriculture. Adopting and implementing new agricultural technological advances, especially when eco-friendly does seem to promote a promising future.

Fair trade regimes and organic agricultural systems are two innovations that increasingly play an important role for agriculture in developing countries. Whereas fair trade regimes have their origin in the developing countries, organic agriculture was started in the rich countries and has only recently become popular in the Third World. Both innovations can be mutually reinforcing as fair trade often combined with organic production standards opens up new market prospects.

In this article: Fair Trade and Organic Agriculture in Developing Countries: A Review, we explore the opportunities and constraints of marketing organic products from developing countries under fair trade regimes. Based on available literature, we review evidence of the magnitude of organic production and fair trade systems in developing countries. This paper proposes a framework for studying the impact of fair traded organically produced commodities using the case of black pepper in India. The framework will generate testable hypotheses regarding the two innovations.

Picture credit: tijmen van dobbenburgh