Improving food marketing systems in developing countries : experiences from Latin America

Chapter One presents LAMP"s systems approach, which views a marketing system as a coordinated whole comprised of legal policies and institutional arrangements as well as the physical handling or trading of products, and which views the production and distribution of farm inputs, farm production and food distribution, and the production of consumer goods as interdependent; ways of adapting this diagnostic tool to local conditions are also noted. Chapter Two reviews major aspects of the social and economic environment and their relationship to the food production-distribution system. Chapters Three and Four focus on comparative analyses, respectively, of urban food distribution and of market coordination problems in major agricultural commodity subsystems across several countries; they include action recommendations. Chapter Five uses LAMP"s systems approach to present a framework and suggestions for improving performance in agricultural production and distribution, while Chapter Six offers suggestions on initiating and implementing a comprehensive marketing improvement program.