This document is the result of the combined efforts of inter-disciplinary FAO-CGIAR partners. Many of the foundations for this document were developed in a series of three project workshops held in 2004, 2005 and 2006 at FAO headquarters. This document aims to provide some guidance on the design and the implementation of the methodology conducted to evaluate the relationship between agricultural markets and farmer’s decision making. Specifically, it provides a summary of the conceptual and empirical frameworks that have been adopted in order to empirically assess the impact of markets on farmers utilization of crop genetic resources, and to identify possible interventions that could be implemented by the public sector to promote the sustainable utilization of crop genetic resources. Different concepts and instruments such as value chain analysis, sampling strategies, vendors, community and household data collection, among others, are carefully described and analyzed. In addition, the different econometric techniques that could be considered by researchers when assessing the impact of on-market biodiversity and on-farm biodiversity on farmers’ welfare are also examined. The concepts, the methodology, the instruments and the econometric approaches described below are not exclusive for this particular research and can be implemented in other settings.
