Impact of Informational Capabilities on Market Access of Smallholder Farmers during COVID-19: A Study in Bangladesh

• Author / Creator

  Rahman, S M Asif Ur

• Market accessibility, as an essential livelihood criterion in today’s commoditized world, needs a group of buyers and sellers to transact values among themselves through negotiation. Communication – an exchange of information for mutual understanding – plays a vital role in this negotiation.
  Information and communication technology (ICT) is an umbrella term encompassing vast arrays of communication and information processing tools and techniques. Access to ICTs is not sufficient enough to actualize its transformative and empowering benefits; what it needs is Informational Capabilities – some combination of resources and skills that enable individuals to ‘function’ and make decisions independently which gives the real essence of meaningful human development.
  To examine the impact of informational capabilities on smallholder farmers’ access to the market in Bangladesh during COVID-19, several research articles, newspaper reports, websites, and published book sections were studied. Systematic literature review substantiated a gap in the research field which needed to be explored thoroughly by an empirical study. With this end in view, a detailed research design and data collection plan were formulated. According to this research plan, key informant interviews were done to have a dataset of rich insights from knowledgeable persons. The dataset was analyzed using a widely accepted method among qualitative researchers known as Thematic Analysis. After analyzing the data, four underlying themes were discovered that have relevance to the study context and research topic: use of ICTs for better market access by smallholder farmers in Bangladesh during COVID-19 can be different in terms of generational, geographical, infrastructural aspects, and can be challenged by existing market systems dominated by intermediaries. These themes constitute the current study’s contribution to the field of knowledge.
  
  Future implications of this study might be a quantitative analysis of the themes employing a much larger sample size for validating the findings.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Informational Capability
  • Market Access
  • COVID-19
  • ICT
  • Smallholder Farmer

• Graduation date

  Fall 2023

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-vcwq-0y68

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.