Wholesalers and the transformation of Myanmar's maize value chains

cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research instituteen
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR single centreen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Food Policy Research Instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationMichigan State Universityen
cg.contributor.affiliationGran Sasso Science Instituteen
cg.contributor.donorUnited States Agency for International Developmenten
cg.contributor.donorLivelihoods and Food Security Fund, Myanmaren
cg.coverage.countryMyanmar
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2MM
cg.coverage.regionAsia
cg.coverage.regionSouth-eastern Asia
cg.creator.identifierBen Belton: 0000-0002-6474-6472
cg.creator.identifierAme Cho: 0000-0002-0232-7790
cg.creator.identifierBart Minten: 0000-0002-2183-1845
cg.creator.identifierThomas Reardon: 0000-0001-7374-1799
cg.howPublishedFormally Publisheden
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13489en
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Development Strategies and Governance Unit
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Feed the Future
cg.identifier.projectIFPRI - Myanmar Strategy Support Program
cg.identifier.publicationRankB
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn2040-5790en
cg.issue1en
cg.journalApplied Economic Perspectives and Policyen
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.subject.impactAreaPoverty reduction, livelihoods and jobs
cg.volume47en
dc.contributor.authorBelton, Benen
dc.contributor.authorCho, Ameen
dc.contributor.authorHall, Michaelen
dc.contributor.authorMinten, Barten
dc.contributor.authorReardon, Thomasen
dc.date.accessioned2024-12-05T16:40:48Zen
dc.date.available2024-12-05T16:40:48Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/163081
dc.titleWholesalers and the transformation of Myanmar's maize value chainsen
dcterms.abstractWholesalers of agricultural crops have historically received limited attention in the literature on agricultural development, which has a strongly productivist focus. When wholesalers are considered, they are often framed as exploitative, taking advantage of information asymmetries, market failures, and unequal power relations to extract heavy surpluses from farmers. However, there is a growing appreciation that wholesalers may play important roles in facilitating agricultural development and rural transformation. This paper evaluates wholesaler conduct and performance using a survey of 218 maize wholesalers in 12 of the major maize-growing and trading townships of South Shan State, Myanmar and the cities of Lashio and Muse in North Shan. Hybrid maize emerged very rapidly in Myanmar over the past two decades to become a major cash crop, supplying domestic animal feed mills and becoming one of Myanmar's most important exports to China and Thailand. Wholesalers have been central to the development of this supply chain and the sector. Contrary to recent literature from Myanmar that has cast maize wholesalers as exploitative, the survey finds that the rapidly growing wholesaler segment of the maize value chain is highly competitive, rapidly changing with respect to technology, and functions efficiently. Farmers obtaining maize inputs from wholesalers in the form of tied output credit sell their maize at prevailing market rates. The emergence of clusters of maize wholesalers and allied actors such as third-party logistics services occurred spontaneously and symbiotically with the expansion of hybrid maize cultivation, and with each set of actors essential to the emergence of the others.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceScientistsen
dcterms.available2024-11-27
dcterms.bibliographicCitationBelton, Ben; Cho, Ame; Hall, Michael; Minten, Bart; and Reardon, Thomas. 2025. Wholesalers and the transformation of Myanmar's maize value chains. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 47(1): 125-153. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13489en
dcterms.extent29 p.en
dcterms.issued2025-03
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-NC-4.0
dcterms.publisherWileyen
dcterms.subjectagricultural developmenten
dcterms.subjectmaizeen
dcterms.subjectwholesale marketsen
dcterms.subjectvalue chainsen
dcterms.subjectsmall and medium enterprisesen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

Files

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.75 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: