‘Plant, Sleep, Pick’: Ambivalent Smallholder Market Engagement and Inclusive Value Chains in Northwest Nepal

Inclusive value chain frameworks have been widely adopted by states and international development agencies as a strategy for addressing rural poverty. The approach aims to improve smallholder farmers’ linkages to agricultural markets and to increase the value of their products within these markets. Inclusive value chain initiatives targeting apple producers in northwestern Nepal are illustrative of this development approach. This article examines apple production in Jumla District, which has expanded rapidly over the last two decades, and shows how value chain development interventions have sought to accelerate a shift towards commercial agriculture by linking producers to agribusiness partners and upgrading production. A central assumption of these interventions is that farmers will aim to maximize profits through entrepreneurial strategies within targeted value chains. However, as this article demonstrates, a closer investigation of the political ecology of apple production in the region calls this assumption into question. The article argues that the popularity of apples in Jumla District must be situated within processes of agrarian change and livelihood diversification that have informed labour‐saving, risk‐averse approaches to apple market participation. The findings lend support to calls for strategies that prioritize autonomy and long‐term risk mitigation over competitive market integration.