Global and National Food Safety and Quality Standards: Implications and Impacts for Farmers in Thailand and India

The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the understanding of how public and private actors in developing countries react to global and national standards and to analyse the implications of diverse standards on smallholders in the fruit and vegetable value chain. To do this, an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Thai and Indian fruit and vegetable sector have been carried out. Results show that it is the wealthier and more educated small-scale farmers who adopt and benefit from the private standards, indicating that the poorest segment of smallholders has not benefited from donor interventions. In addition, the vast majority of smallholders serve domestic markets or lower-value export markets, where private standards are not a requirement.