Niche Commodities and Rural Poverty Alleviation:Contextualizing t he Contribution of A rgan Oil to Rural Livelihoods in Morocco
(2012) Association of American Geographers. Annals — Vol. 103, n° 3, p. 589-607 (2012)
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- Abstract
- Integration of many remote regions into the global economy has brought an increasing array of exotic products from rural areas in the developing world t o t he plates and cupboards of wealthy consumers. This article contributes to the growing literature t hat looks at the r ole of global consumers i n s ocial and environmental governance. We examine a set of global commodities that, due to their high value, retail at prices well beyond usual agricultural products, giving wealthy consumers great influence over livelihood and land use choices in producer regions. Proponents assert this kind of commercialization will alleviate r ural poverty. W e i dentify necessary conditions for t his t o happen in general and consider the s pecific case of argan oil, produced in Morocco and sold abroad for prices above US$400 per liter. Using a livelihood approach drawing on geography and related fields, we t est t he claim t hat niche commodity trade alleviates poverty in this specific setting. We find that argan oil commercialization has played a r elatively minor role in household budgets and asset accumulation, whereas nonfarm work and remittances play a greater role. Our results s how the i mportance of a livelihood approach in contextualizing commodity chains. W e conclude that the poverty alleviation effects of niche commodity marketing are context dependent and influenced by agro-ecological conditions, r esource scarcity, resource ownership regime, and characteristics of the value chains. Key W ords: argan, livelihood analysis, Morocco, niche products, r ural development.
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Citations
le Polain De Waroux, Y., & Lambin, E. (2012). Niche Commodities and Rural Poverty Alleviation:Contextualizing t he Contribution of A rgan Oil to Rural Livelihoods in Morocco. Association of American Geographers. Annals, 103(3), 589-607. https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2012.720234 (Original work published 2012)