Tom Reardon is Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, USA, where he has researched and taught since January 1992. From 1986 through 1991, he was Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in Washington DC. From 1984 to 1986 he was Rockefeller Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow attached to IFPRI and also working with ICRISAT in West Africa. Tom finished his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of California at Berkeley in 1984, studying under Alain de Janvry. Tom’s work focuses on food industry transformation in Asia and Latin America. Tom is widely recognized as the leading global expert in links between the “supermarket revolution” and agrifood value chains and farmers in developing regions. His work has nearly 5000 citations by 2008 in Google Scholar, and he is listed in “Who’s Who in Economics” since 2003. With Peter Timmer, he wrote the chapter on food and agricultural markets in the Handbook of Agricultural Economics with a volume on agricultural development that appears once each quarter century. He is on the board of academic journals such as Development Policy Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, and Agricultural Economics. Ashok Gulati of IFPRI and Tom are co-directors of the IFPRI/MSU Joint Program on “Markets in Asia” since 2007. At present he spends an important share of each year in Asia, mainly India and Indonesia, as well as Philippines, and China. Tom has advised on issues of market development governments and industry organizations in India, Indonesia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Chile, China, Argentina, Costa Rica, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the US. He has twice been speaker at the PMA (Produce Marketing Association of the US) Annual Convention for produce industry companies from around the world. Tom has consulted for and led research projects with the World Bank, FAO, UNIDO, DFID, USAID, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Gates Foundation, and several major food companies, and was on a development-experts panel in 2008 of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to propose a strategy for international development assistance to the incoming US administration. Tom co-founded in 2000 at MSU the program “Partnerships in Food Industry Development” that focuses on developing innovations in linking farmers to modern markets and fomenting private-public partnerships. His current work focuses on horticulture, rice and shrimp/fish value chains in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and private-sector “rural business hubs” in India. Tom has a partial appointment by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, with Tom charged with informing Michigan businesses about international market trends and opportunities. Tom teaches AEC 861 (Agriculture in Economic Development) and ABM/FIM 427 (Global Agrifood Markets) in the fall semesters. Tom is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of a project of IFPRI with MSU on Markets in Asia, an umbrella for USAID, Gates Foundation, and Asian Development Bank projects in India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. He is also PI of the AMA CRSP USAID project on small farmers access to dynamic markets in Indonesia and Nicaragua, and PI for the Asian Development Project with the same title in the Philippines.

Professional Interests

• Links between the rapid rise of supermarkets, processing and wholesale sectors transformation, and farm sector development in developing countries
• Asia and Latin America
• The rise of private food safety and quality standards
• Fruit and vegetables and dairy products markets in Asia and Latin America

Selected Publications

Reardon, T., C.B. Barrett, J.A. Berdegue, J. Swinnen. Forthcoming. “Agrifood Industry Transformation and Farmers in Developing Countries,” World Development.

Davis, B., T. Reardon, K. Stamoulis, and P. Winters. (Guest Editors), Forthcoming. “Household-Level Linkages between Farm and Non-Farm Rural Income Generating Activities,” Agricultural Economics (IAAE journal).

Wang, H., X. Dong, S. Rozelle, J. Huang, and T. Reardon. Forthcoming. “Producing and Procuring Horticultural Crops with Chinese Characteristics: The Case of Northern China”, World Development, forthcoming.

Haggblade, S., P.B.R. Hazell, and T. Reardon. Forthcoming. The Rural Nonfarm Economy: Prospects for Growth and Poverty Reduction, World Development.

Minten, B. and T. Reardon. 2008. “Food Prices, Quality, and Quality’s Pricing in Supermarkets vs Traditional Markets in Developing Countries,” Review of Agricultural Economics. 30(3), Fall.

Reardon, T., K. Stamoulis, and P. Pingali. 2007. “Rural nonfarm employment in developing countries in an era of globalization, Agricultural Economics 37 (s1): 173-183.

Reardon, T. and C.P. Timmer. 2007. “Transformation of Markets for Agricultural Output in Developing Countries Since 1950: How Has Thinking Changed?” chapter 55 in R.E. Evenson, and P. Pingali. Handbook of Agricultural Economics, 3: Agricultural Development: Farmers, Farm Production and Farm Markets. Amsterdam: Elsevier Press: 2808-2855.

Natawidjaja, R., T. Reardon., and S. Shetty, with T.I. Noor, T. Perdana, E. Rasmikayati, S. Bachri, and R. Hernandez. 2007. Horticultural Producers and Supermarket Development in Indonesia. UNPAD/MSU Report no. 38543, published by the World Bank/Indonesia, June.

Hernández, R., T. Reardon, and J.A. Berdegué. 2007. “Supermarkets, Wholesalers, and Tomato Growers in Guatemala,” Agricultural Economics, 36(3), May: 281-290.

Reardon, T., C.P. Timmer, C.B. Barrett, J. Berdegue. 2003. “The Rise of Supermarkets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 85 (5), December: 1140-1146.

Funded Research Projects