Outgrowing the Flower Pot: Why Just Selling Productive Equipment to Smallholder Farmers is Not Enough - NextBillion on Acess to markets.
There is a wave on selling products and services , technology, cold stores, and tools to small holder farmers. Starting from a solar driers to farm supplies to seeds.
These kind of business opportunities are double edged sword for a farmer if the acess to market of the produce is not part of the package. Any farm investment, especially the capital input focussed without guarantee of better market returns puts the farmer at substantial risk.
The approach based on technology to improve the economic aspects, generally is a doom loop, in a balanced kite of livelihood driven farming. Focus should be on ecological diversity of the farm , whole linking to markets enables farmers to generate income streams.