The study offers a new way of conceptualizing the problems that lead to the exclusion of
smallholders from live hog and pork markets, explaining why some smallholders participate
successfully, while others do not. Determinants are identified using limited-dependent variable
models based on the hypothesis that transaction costs, such as access to credit and market
information, affect market participation. The report also presents a contemporary approach to
measuring profit efficiency in hog production for the case of Southern Luzon, Philippines.
Although the findings of this study are specific to the Philippine context, many of the
issues confronted are common to the challenges of participation, upscaling processes, and
policy interventions across the developing world. The research has generated solid empirical
perspectives of the changing situation of poor smallholder producers in a high-value market
situation. IFPRI thus continues to examine the effect of mechanisms like contract farming on
collective action as a means of increasing smallholder participation in high-value markets,
particularly in developing countries in Asia and Africa, where small farms continue to dominate
the landscape.