there is still a high reliance on collected fuel (Nathan and Kelkar, 1997).
     Along with the entry of women into the labor force, the household shift from collected to purchased fuel seems to play a role in the energy transition. Where a household be­gins to buy fuel, then the economies of inferior goods comes into play and as income rises, the proportion of wood as fuel goes down.
     This analysis points to the importance of entry into the commercial world of trade, both as income earning pro­ducers and as buyers of fuel, for bringing about a change in technology adoption. A technology change, from wood as fuel to gas or other commercial fuels, depends on the gendered economic factors of women's income earning and household purchase of fuels.

3.4.8     Organic agriculture and fair trade
There are increasing opportunities in organic and fair trade products, which are emerging as important niche markets that are growing at a high rate around the globe. Asia alone has 20 countries growing organic produce with 60,000 en­terprises and 0.6 million ha in organic cultivation, which is 15% of all farms and 2.6% of total area under organic farming worldwide (Raynolds, 2004).
     Organic and fair trade movements contribute not only to environmental and economic sustainability, but also help rural livelihoods in a sustainable manner. Organic farming is one form of sustainable agriculture with maximum reliance on self-regulating agroecosystems (Browne et al., 2000).
     In globalized markets, whether or not local producers can gain access to global value chains and at which point, is likely to be an important factor in determining whether they will benefit from trade liberalization (Eapen et al., 2003). This has meant that the access of developing countries to enter developed world markets is dependent on their abil­ity to enter the global value chains or production networks of lead firms. The newly emergent organic produce sup­ply chains tend to exclude small producers due to reasons of high certification costs, smaller volumes produced and tighter control by the chain leaders in the absence of any local market outlets for the organic producers (Raynolds, 2004; Singh, 2006a).
     There is therefore a need to mainstream organic and fair trade movements to ensure the participation of large num­ber of producers in developing countries in these markets, without bringing in the ills of conventional chains. Thus, there is need for policy thrust and support for such market-oriented sustainability and livelihood initiatives.
     It is argued that organic production is suited for small farmer participation as it is labor intensive and compatible with traditional peasant practices. However, export of or­ganic products involves certification, documentation, record keeping and auditing which makes it industrial in nature and counters the traditional norms and practices of peas­ant producers. Also, price premiums are likely to decline as economies of scale are attained in marketing and the sup­ply base expands at a rate unmatched by market expansion (Krissoff, 1998).
     The organic value chains are very complex due to the process importance in being organic. But, the farmers and

the laborers are the weakest links in the chains driven by importers, exporters and retail chains (IDS, 2003; Kabeer and Mahmud, 2004). It is only the fair trade and alternative trade networks which still provide some scope for participa­tion of the small and marginal organic producers (Yussefi and Willer, 2003; Raynolds, 2004).
     Further, in international markets, increasingly, organic trade and ethical and fair trade concerns are beginning to overlap (Raynolds, 2004). An increasing number of fairly traded goods are also organic (70%) and the organic move­ment is moving towards including social rights and ethi­cal trade in its standards. If there is consumer pressure for this overlap, then there would be considerable implications for the volume of trade, the developing country produc­ers' ability to meet the requirements and for the working conditions and livelihoods of producers (Browne et. al., 2000). Whereas ethical trade is people centered, environ­ment focused and animal centered, the fair trade approach emphasizes partnerships with producers for improving the status of disempowered groups through alternative trading organizations. It works though Self Help Groups (SHGs) for provision of fair price to primary producers, with focus on gender equality, market access and long term relationship (Tallontire, 2001).
     The exclusion of small farmers from participating in global food chains does not appear to be, in any way, au­tomatic. There have been cases of success when public or private assistance to the growers in terms of technical as­sistance and supply of input credit was made available. In some places in Brazil, small dairy farmers have gone for col­lective tanks to meet the scale requirement, though the large farmers will still have an advantage, as they do not face the transaction cost involved in collective use of physical assets. The dairy companies and cooperatives encourage the use of collective tanks, even by financing or facilitating credit for milk producers in some cases (Farina, 2002). Similarly, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in India is implementing a clean milk production program with price incentives, in a small dairy cattle holder context.
     Market access for small producers depends on (1) un­derstanding the markets; (2) organization of the firm or op­erations; (3) communication and transport links and (4) an appropriate policy environment (Page and Slater, 2003). In­sofar as the role of the government in the commodity chain is concerned, it can proactively help the stakeholders in the chain to identify the opportunities and threats in the global commodity chains. It can also assist producers to enter the chains (Kaplinsky, 2000). If, in a given country, a few chains command majority of the organic sector, then development policies and programs need to learn how to deal with this handful of big companies.
     However, it is equally important to promote good busi­ness practices that optimize retailer-supplier relations, pro­tecting both sides. This can be initiated by establishing or improving contract regulations and business rules of prac­tice some of which are already available in the form of legal provisions in the US and Argentina. These practices can also be forced by private sector codes of practice. These changes and the basic requirements they impose on growers are con­ditions that will have to be met if the growers are to be