Commercial Horticulture, appraising the potential

Allison Brown

In: UA Magazine 5 - Methodologies for UA research, policy development, planning and implementation

For market-oriented farmers, the agriculture production plan should be derived from a proper marketing plan, not vice versa. The issue for farmers is not which crops can be grown, since this may be many, but what can be profitably sold. However, sound market development and advice, is a more difficult task than transferring production skills. This is the reason why market extension is often lacking or not a priority. This paper describes an Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Rapid Appraisal (UPARA) for the assessment of social, economic, and technical factors affecting market gardeners. For market-oriented farmers, the agriculture production plan should be derived from a proper marketing plan, not vice versa. The issue for farmers is not which crops can be grown, since this may be many, but what can be profitably sold. However, sound market development and advice, is a more difficult task than transferring production skills. This is the reason why market extension is often lacking or not a priority.