ABSTRACT
Globalization, either directly or indirectly, has brought about profound changes in the previously existing institutional order. Specifically, in the agricultural sector, structural adjustment reforms called for the disappearance of governmental regulatory institutions (e.g. marketing boards) and lowering, if not totally removing, of various trade protection barriers in many developing countries. However, the long overdue changes in the previously extant institutional order that globalization entails surely cannot be reduced to no institutions at all. In fact, the changes in the institutional environment have had dramatic impacts on the production and market environment of many producers in less developed countries (LDCs), especially for small, non-organized farmers because of, for example, the resulting more risky environment.
