Doctoral Dissertation Research: Restructuring of the Agri-food System and Developing Countries

jane L. CollinsJennifer R. wiegel威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校拉丁美洲的超市在过去的十年里发生了什么？食品零售的平均份额从15%增长到70%，零售在全国范围内的集中度也有所提高，只剩下少数几家龙头企业。与此同时，超市已将采购从批发市场转向与首选供应商网络建立半合同关系。这些变化增强了发展中国家超市重塑食品生产和分配的能力，对生产者和消费者以及农村和城市贫困人口产生了重要影响。本文研究了食品零售渠道结构的变化，例如从传统市场到超市，这对发展中国家的农业、农民和农村贫困人口至关重要。联合调查小组将花12个月的时间在尼加拉瓜进行实地考察，研究那里最近超市的增长及其对食品零售和国内食品生产的影响。这项工作解决了三个研究问题：(1)零售业主导的重组如何影响发展中国家？(2)零售业主导的重组如何影响发展中国家现有的食品零售渠道、食品供应和食品市场，以及(3)发展中国家的农民如何经历和应对这些变化？该研究借鉴了社会学、农业经济学和地理学领域的最新研究，这些研究将全球食品零售商确定为发达国家农业食品体系转型的驱动力。然而，它将这项研究扩展到关注发展中国家超市的增长，以及它通过对传统食品零售机构和实践的影响对国内农民的影响。它还将重点从直接向超市供货的农民扩展到向传统食品零售渠道供货的农民。关于生产、消费和贸易的数据将用于探讨尼加拉瓜与世界粮食市场一体化的变化。政府对家庭支出、价格和食品零售商的统计数据，加上对批发商和零售商的访谈和简短调查，将有助于了解食品零售渠道的变化。农业普查数据和对买家的访谈将有助于绘制跨国超市、国内超市和传统市场的采购网络。将确定这些不同的西红柿（易腐）和豆类（不易腐）采购网络内的社区，并对农民进行定性访谈，以研究他们如何经历和应对这些变化。更广泛的影响：这项研究将由来自国立大学、政府机构、农业非政府组织和农民协会的个人合作进行。这些合作将有助于围绕这些问题促进当地的研究、培训和教学网络，确保研究成果在当地的相关性和传播，并将其纳入政策。调查结果也将在美国和国际学术和政策论坛及出版物上传播。所获得的知识将通过汇集上述不同学科的工作，丰富农业与发展社会学的教学和研究。

SES-0802780Jane L. CollinsJennifer R. WiegelUniversity of Wisconsin-MadiosnOver the past decade in Latin America supermarkets? share of food retail has grown from 15% to 70% on average, and concentration of retail at the national level has increased, leaving only a few lead firms. At the same time supermarkets have shifted procurement from wholesale markets to semi-contractual relationships with networks of preferred suppliers. These changes have increased the power of supermarkets in developing countries to reshape food production and distribution, with important implications for producers and consumers, and for the rural and urban poor. This dissertation studies the changing structure of food retail channels, for example from traditional markets to supermarkets, matters for agriculture, farmers and the rural poor in developing countries. The co-PI will spend twelve months conducting fieldwork in Nicaragua to study the recent growth of supermarkets there and its effects on food retailing and domestic food production. This work addresses three research questions: (1) how does retail-led restructuring affect a developing country?s integration with world food markets, (2) how is retail-led restructuring affecting existing food retail channels, food provisioning, and food markets within developing countries, and (3) how are farmers in developing countries experiencing and responding to these changes? The study draws on recent research in the fields of sociology, agricultural economics, and geography which identifies global food retailers as the drivers in transforming agri-food systems in developed countries. Yet it extends this research to focus on the growth of supermarkets within developing countries, and its impact on farmers domestically, through its effects on traditional food retail institutions and practices. It also extends the focus on farmers directly supplying supermarkets, to include farmers supplying traditional food retail channels. Data on production, consumption and trade will be used to explore the changing integration of Nicaragua with world food markets. Government statistics on household spending, prices, and food retailers, combined with interviews and short surveys of wholesalers and retailers will help understand changes in food retail channels. Agricultural census data and interviews with buyers will help to map out procurement networks for transnational supermarkets, national supermarkets, and traditional markets. Communities within these different procurement networks for tomatoes (perishable) and beans (not perishable) will be identified and qualitative interviews with farmers to study how they are experiencing and responding to these changes. Broader Impacts: The research will be conducted as a collaborative endeavor involving individuals from national universities, government agencies, agricultural NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and farmers associations. These collaborations will help foster local research, training, and teaching networks around these issues, ensure local relevance and dissemination of research findings, and their incorporation into policy. Findings will also be disseminated in US and international academic and policy forums and publications. Knowledge gained will enrich teaching and research in the sociology of agriculture and development by bringing together work from the disparate disciplines mentioned above.