The role of middlemen in potato production in Cochabamba, Bolivia: financial aspects of sharecropping

Abstract

Overgeneralizing with regard to social and economic structures can cause serious problems in the understanding of peasant production systems and lead to the prescription of inappropiate alternative strategies. The financial problems and their solutions for potato production financing through sharecropping contracts in Cochabamba, Bolivia. On the surface, potato sharecropping middelmen (and women) seem to reap inordinate profits when compared to European or North American financial standards. Nevertheless, they serve as finances in a capital poor production environment, working with a capital intensive and risk product. Comparisons of returns to sharecropping partners suggest that these arrangements are favorable and economically rational for farmers as well as for capitalist. It is suggested that the involvement of middlemen may be important for the improvement of potato production.