Development of High-Value Agricultural Districts: The Role of Producer Cooperatives in Japan and Developing Countries

Keijiro Otsuka ()

Chapter Chapter 7 in Industrial Districts in History and the Developing World, 2016, pp 101-114 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Like manufactured products, quality variations are large in high-value agricultural products (HVPs) such as vegetables, fruits, and livestock products. Yet, it is difficult for retailers and consumers to identify immediately the quality as well as safety of HVPs. Like manufacturing industrial districts, innovation holds the key to the development of agricultural districts. Thus, producer cooperatives ought to play a key role in introducing new technologies, obtaining marketing information, and ensuring the quality of HVPs. This chapter attempts to demonstrate not only similarities in development patterns between industrial and agricultural districts but also in the role played by producer cooperatives. With a view to drawing lessons from historical experience for the development of agricultural districts in developing countries, this chapter reviews the development experience of apple-producing district in prewar Japan and compares it with the contemporary development of a large number of agricultural districts in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords: High-value agricultural products; Agricultural districts; Quality and safety; Innovations; Producer cooperatives; Contract farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:stechp:978-981-10-0182-6_7

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-0182-6_7

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