This bulletin is written for people who want to learn more about the challenges and opportunities of farmers as shareholders, that is, including small-scale farmers' groups and associations in the ownership of companies that add value and market their produce. Following the general overview of the issues and prospects presented in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 provides four detailed cases which examine the state of the art in this complex area. The cases look at farmers' organizations who produce cocoa, coffee, tea and organic cotton in Ghana, Rwanda and Peru. The emphasis is on how they became shareholders in companies that market their product in the North, the challenges faced and benefits gained for the different parties involved. To round out the picture, brief examples of another marketing initiative in India known as Zameen, and additional background on the work of TWIN Trading are provided. In Chapter 3, the authors provide a synthesis of experience and offer insights into the different motives for promoting shareholding by producers/farmers. After presenting the perceptions of different stakeholders--the companies, the donors and the farmers' organizations--as described in the cases, a section is devoted to the all-important issue of sustainability (for shareholding by farmer organizations). At the end, there are annexes that provide answers to several common questions on farmers as shareholders, and a list of selected websites where the reader may go to get current news on the many organizations and fair trade companies discussed in the book.

Any assessment of interventions in a food system should include an assessment of the effects these interventions will have on the resilience of that particular system.

This systematic review attempts to answer the question: "What is the evidence for, and nature of, the impact of development interventions on food security in developing countries?." A combination of 38 qualified case studies plus 46 other reviews are used to evaluate the impact of interventions aimed at increasing production, developing value chains, reforming market regulations, and improving land security. Although the subject is rather comprehensive for a review of this size, a few interesting conclusions come out. Increased production in Asia has been the result of increased yield, but also of increased labour productivity that reduced production costs and food prices -- which benefited poor consumers, while farmers compensated their low prices with higher yields and off-farm income. Value chain development increased farm income, but so far there is little indication that most vulnerable people benefited. Market reform had poor results if it simply consisted of reducing trade barriers and reducing government support to agriculture, but had good results when there was a gradual shift of roles from government to (new) institutions and private sector. Land tenure security has encouraged farmer investments, and was an important part of the economic reform in China and Vietnam. The best results were achieved by combinations of interventions, in a context where other pre-conditions were already met.