牧田 りえ

Although most studies on the Fair Trade initiative are, to some extent, cognizant of its contribution to environmental sustainability, what the environmental aspect means to Fair Trade has not yet been explored fully. A review of environmental issues in the Fair Trade literature suggests that Fair Trade might influence participant producers' farming practices even if it does not directly impact natural resources. This paper attempts to interpret Fair Trade certification as an intermediary institution that links two significant objectives of rural development in the global South-environmental conservation and poverty reduction. This theoretical concept is examined in different real settings by observing four cases of Southern small farmer groups involved in the Fair Trade initiative. Findings from these case studies imply that if Fair Trade certification ensures tangible benefits for small farmers, it can not only help such disadvantaged farmers but also work as an approach for natural resource management.

The promotion of intensive farming through organic and fair trade certification appears contradictory to the increasing significance of non-farm income sources in rural Asia as well as in many other parts of the rural South. By observing a sugarcane producer co-operative comprising land reform beneficiaries in the Philippines, this paper explores the reality of livelihood diversification as practised by member households of the certified co-operative, focusing on the compatibility of certification-supported farming with diversified activities. In this case, diversification at the household level progressed both away from farming and into farming. Behind the long-term use of agricultural certification, there are compelling reasons for continuing both certification-supported farming and diversified activities, and for employing mechanisms that further the compatibility at all phases between the former and the latter, and maximising income-generating opportunities. The operation of communal land with agricultural certification may be an effective form of assistance to land reform beneficiaries who share a strong desire to be landowners.

This paper explores a confluence of Fair Trade and organic initiatives under the prevalence of Bt cotton in India, using as an interpretative framework Guthman's conventionalization thesis for organic farming in the Northern context. In a case study conducted in Andhra Pradesh, the confluence of the two initiatives, contrary to their ethical standards, contributed to the spread of genetically modified (GM) seed. The Fair Trade initiative, lacking a scheme for compensating for the decrease in income that producers have to endure during the conversion period, tends to take a more relaxed attitude toward GM crops in order to assist small farmers. Fair Trade's dilemma between helping poor farmers and promoting organic farming may have indirectly allowed Fair Trade producers to tend towards conventional farming with Bt seeds. As a result, the confluence of the two initiatives has not intensified the organic concept as "an alternative accumulation strategy for agrarian capitalism," but neither has it released disadvantaged Southern farmers from agrarian capitalism. Rather, it has led farmers into another form of agrarian capitalism. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This article analyses the impact of Fair Trade certification by focusing on its interactions with the patron-client relations traditionally established between management and workers in tea plantations in India. It argues that the invisibility of Fair Trade among workers, which generally reinforces existing patron-client relations through Fair Trade premiums, inversely hides the patronage of the management, and that workers are empowered when a premium is invested in a community development project led by an independent third-party organisation. © The Author 2012. Development Policy Review © 2012 Overseas Development Institute.

Although the confluence of Fair Trade and organic agriculture has become a salient phenomenon, they contradict each other at the production level: Fair Trade focuses on specific products, while organic agriculture targets production units. This article explores how Southern small-scale producers cope with this discrepancy, by observing one farmers' group's attempt to obtain the two certifications in India. This case study identifies stakeholders who react to the two certifications differently under different livelihood strategies. Combining the two initiatives may not always be the best practice for realising poverty reduction and environmental conservation -aims which the initiatives have in common. © 2011 Taylor &amp Francis.