Problem
Undue control of prices by intermediaries
Other Names:
Profiteering on village products by middlemen Nature:
Many Third World farmers do not market their products but rather depend on "middlemen" to be the link between the farm and the market. By creating a false market in which local prices are manipulated below the level of the actual market, the middleman effectively reduces the profit margin for the farmer. This manipulation of the local market creates an annual crisis of indebtedness when, in order to sustain family and farm, the farmer is forced to borrow capital at high rates of interest, which intensifies a debilitating cycle. Probably more damaging than the financial crisis is the position of subservience in which the farmer is placed: he is not it control of his own destiny or the destiny of his land.
Broader Problems:
Dependence on costly trading intermediariesCultural traditions blocking business profit Narrower Problems:
Lack of dairy marketsLack of contract powerExploitation in rural pricingVariation of prices in the same area Related Problems:
Landlord controlled marketingCounterproductive eco-labellingCostly international market organizationsParalyzing patterns between villages and administrative structures Aggravates:
Felt community powerlessnessRestricted farming alternativesInsufficient returns from farmingUnprofitable scope of rural industrial operations Strategies:
Curtailing excessive middleman benefits Subject(s):
Amenities → VillagesCommerce → Agencies, dealers
Commerce → Finance
Commerce → Purchasing, supplying
Cybernetics → Control
Industry → Products
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
E: Emanations of other problems Date of last update
04.10.2020 – 22:48 CEST