Informal agricultural market channels for food security and poverty reduction: Exploring policy options in Nicaragua

The main objective of the data collection was to obtain primary data from three types of actors (intermediaries, wholesalers and retailers) along three value chains (red beans, plum tomatoes, dry/semi-dry cheese) to better understand the opportunities traditional market channels present for food security and poverty reduction for smallholder farmers and poor consumers, and to make policy recommendations oriented to increase the benefits to them. We collected data from main wet markets of three main cities in Nicaragua (Managua, Esteli and Matagalpa).

The subject areas included demographics, general information about the business, services provided and received, trading information, challenges and business relationships.

The research questions were: what are the existing rural-urban linkages between small producers and low-income consumers of a representative food basket; what are entry points that could be leveraged to propose policies for traditional markets that can increase benefits for rural producers and urban consumers; and could inclusive business models be constructed between actors in traditional markets.