How to strengthen the development effectiveness of local purchase for food aid

Taking the case of Burkina Faso, the paper analyses effects of local purchase on marginal producers. It argues that because of imports of food together with ‘distress sales’ on the part of the producers, perfect market conditions do not exist. Therefore market price does not equal the optimal price. In the absence of an optimal price, price interventions are justifiable and this makes payment to local farmers of a ‘fairer’ price both possible and desirable. The additional income thus generated will not only give the producers greater access to food, but also the ability to invest in order to increase production.

The full article is available here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614524.2011.590882