Alternative rural income sources are essential to limit rural-urban migration. Postharvest activities such as processing and marketing can provide much needed employment for those who exit the agricultural sector. Research on policies, institutions, and technologies to strengthen the development of rural agroenterprises would directly contribute to the strengthening of the rural economy even within a contracting agricultural sector. The third trend is toward a more liberalized international trade system and an increasing orientation of developing countries toward export markets as a source of economic growth. Participation in international markets requires relatively sophisticated marketing, information, and transportation networks.
Successful competition requires quality control and product standardization.
While for large companies, it is economically feasible to develop sophisticated marketing strategies, smaller producers will greatly benefit from methods and technologies that allow them to compete in international markets. Finally, a trend toward improved infrastructure and communication network opens new market opportunities for the poor farmers in developing countries. However, to make such opportunity operational, more research on appropriate technologies to store, transport, process, and ensuring quality will be necessary. The review of some of these projects and their impact points to an overall positive contribution. Since so far, relatively little has been invested in postharvest research, there is potential for large impacts as constraints and bottlenecks are removed.