College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

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Tom Reardon is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. Tom has been at MSU since 1992; IFPRI Research Fellow 1986-1991; Rockefeller Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow with IFPRI in Burkina Faso 1984-1986; Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1984, and masters from the Université de Nice and Columbia University. Tom is also Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI since 2022.

Tom studies the transformation of food value chains: (1) the “supermarket revolution” and the "food service revolution" (2) the “Quiet Revolution” in the “Hidden Middle”, a term coined by him for SMEs in the midstream of value chains; (3) R&D and farm inputs supply chain transformation; (4) e-commerce and food delivery intermediaries. He studies the impacts of these transformations on food industry business strategies, on farms, consumption/nutrition, and employment. Tom also researches “Rural Nonfarm Employment” inside and outside of food systems. 

Tom works mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and has stayed 21 years in those regions. His current field survey projects and primary data analysis are in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania.

Tom is a Fellow of Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) and Honorary Life Member (equivalent of Fellow) of International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). He has 50,000 citations in Google Scholar with an H index of 103 as of November 2024. He ranks in the top 1.7% of 68,000 economists globally tracked by IDEAS/REPEC. Tom is in Who’s Who in Economics; was featured on the front page of the New York Times; and was the first agrifood economist invitee to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Tom teaches a graduate class on food systems organization (AFRE 841), a graduate class on agriculture in international development (AFRE 861), and an undergraduate class on international agrifood markets (AFRE 327) in fall semesters; he mentors doctoral and masters students (100 since 1992).

Selection of Articles since January 2021

Swinnen, J., L. Ronchi, T. Reardon. 2024. Harnessing agrifood value chains to help farmers be climate smart. Science. Policy Forum. Nov28.

Belton, B., A. Cho, M. Hall, B. Minten, T. Reardon. 2024. Wholesalers and the transformation of Myanmar's maize value chains. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. Accepted Nov5, in press.

Nuthalapati, C.S., A.K. Mishra, P. Pingali, T. Reardon. 2024. Determinants and income effects of small farmers selling to supermarkets vs traditional market channels in four regions of India. Economic & Political Weekly, Special Article, 59(44,45), November 2&9: 60-67.

Belton, B., P. Fang, T. Reardon. 2024. Combine harvester outsourcing services and seasonal rural non-farm employment in Myanmar. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy.  September: 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13480

Reardon, T., T. Awokuse, B. Belton, L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, B. Minten, G. Nguyen, S. Qanti, J. Swinnen, R. Vos, D. Zilberman. 2024. Emerging outsource agricultural services enable farmer adaptation in agrifood value chains: A product cycle perspective. Food Policy. 127, August: 102711.   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102711

Hazell,  P., S. Haggblade, T. Reardon. 2024. Transformation of the rural nonfarm economy during rapid urbanization & structural transformation in developing regions. Annual Review of Resource Economics. 16, July:14.1–14.23.  https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-101623-105713   

Meemken, E-M., D. Charlton, L. Christiaensen, M. Maertens, C. Oya, T. Reardon, H. Stemmler. 2024. Better data and knowledge for decent work in the global food system. Nature Food. June 18. http://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01002-0 

 https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-024-01002-0

Reardon, T., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, B. Belton, M. Dolislager, B. Minten, B.  Popkin, R. Vos. 2024. African domestic supply booms in value chains of fruits, vegetables, and animal products fueled by spontaneous clusters of SMEs. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. Published “early view” April. http://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13436

Vargas, C.M., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Reardon. 2024. Vulnerability of Nigerian Maize Traders to a confluence of climate, violence, disease, and cost shocks. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies. Published (“early cite”) April.  https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-08-2023-0214

Dzanku, F.M., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Reardon. 2024. The Importance and determinants of purchases in rural food consumption in Africa: Implications for food security strategies. Global Food Security 40: 100739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2024.100739

Sauer, C., T. Reardon, N. Mason. 2023. The Poor Do Not Pay More: Evidence from Tanzanian consumer food expenditures controlling for the food environment. Agricultural Economics. First published online, September. http://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12799

Zilberman, D., A. Huang, L. Goldberg, T. Reardon. 2023. The evolution of symbiotic innovation, water, and agricultural supply chains. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 45(3), September: 1592-1603. http://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13342

Naziri, D., Belton, B., Loison, S.A., Reardon, T., Shikuku, K.M., Kaguongo, W., Maina, K., Ogello, E., Obiero, K. 2023. COVID-19 disruptions and pivoting in SMEs in the hidden middle of Kenya’s potato and fish value chains. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. 26 (3): 409-433. http://doi.org/10.22434/IFAMR2022.0120

Liverpool-Tasie, L.S.O., T. Reardon, C.M. Parkhi, M. Dolislager. 2023. Nigerians in poverty consume little wheat and wheat self-sufficiency programs will not protect them from price shocks related to the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Nature Food. April 6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00722-z

Faye, N.F., T. Fall, T. Reardon, V. Theriault, Y. Ngom, M.B. Barry, M.R. Sy. 2023. Consumption of fruits and vegetables by types and sources across urban and rural Senegal. Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies. Published online March11. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-05-2022-0090

Reardon, T, R. Vos. 2023. How resilience innovations in food supply chains are revolutionizing logistics, wholesale trade, and farm services in developing countries. International Food and Agribusiness Management Review. Published online Feb15 2023. https://doi.org/10.22434/IFAMR2022.0138  

Barrett, C.B., T. Reardon, J. Swinnen, D. Zilberman. 2022. Agri-food Value Chain Revolutions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Journal of Economic Literature. 60(4): 1316-1377.  https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20201539

Macchiavello, R., T. Reardon, T. Richards. 2022. Empirical Industrial Organization Economics to Analyze Developing Country Food Value Chains. Annual Review of Resource Economics. 14, October: 193-220. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-101721-023554

Parkhi, C.M., LSO Liverpool-Tasie, T. Reardon. 2022. Do smaller chicken farms use more antibiotics? Evidence on antibiotics diffusion from Nigeria. Agribusiness: An International Journal. September. http://doi.org/10.1002/agr.21770  open access

Meemken, E-M., M.F. Bellemare, T. Reardon, C.M. Vargas. 2022. Research and policy for the food-delivery revolution. Science. 377(6608), August: 810-813. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2182

Dolislager, M. LSO Liverpool-Tasie, N.M. Mason, T. Reardon, D. Tschirley. 2022. Consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods by the African poor: evidence from Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. Agricultural Economics. August. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12738. Open access.

Zilberman, D., T. Reardon, J. Silver, L. Lu, A. Heiman. 2022. From the Lab to the Consumer: Innovation, Supply Chain, and Adoption with Applications to Natural Resources. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA (PNAS). 119(23)e2115880119. Published online June1. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2115880119

Maredia, M.K., Adenikinju, A., Belton, B., Chapoto, A., Faye, N.F., Liverpool-Tasie, S., Olwande, J., Reardon, T., Theriault, V., Tschirley, D. 2022. COVID-19's impacts on incomes and food consumption in urban and rural areas are surprisingly similar: Evidence from five African countries, Global Food Security. 33, 100633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2022.100633

Reardon, T., L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, B. Minten. 2021. Quiet Revolution by SMEs in the midstream of value chains in developing regions: wholesale markets, wholesalers, logistics, and processing. Food Security. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-021-01224-1 ; open access PDF at https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12571-021-01224-1.pdf

Meemken, E-M., C.B. Barrett, H.C. Michelson, M. Qaim, T. Reardon, J. Sellare. 2021.  Sustainability standards in global agrifood supply chains. Nature Food. 2: 758-765. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00360-3

Sauer, C.M., T. Reardon, D. Tschirley, S. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Awokuse, R. Alphonce, D. Ndyetabula, & B. Waized.  2021. Consumption of processed food & food away from home in big cities, small towns, and rural areas of Tanzania. Agricultural Economics, 1-22.  https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12652

Reardon, T., A. Heiman, L. Lu, CSR Nuthalapati, R. Vos, D. Zilberman. 2021. “Pivoting” by food industry firms to cope with COVID-19 in developing regions:  e-commerce and “co-pivoting” delivery-intermediaries. Agricultural Economics. 52(3), June. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12631

Reardon, T., B. Belton, LSO Liverpool-Tasie, L. Lu, CSR Nuthalapati, O. Tasie, D. Zilberman. 2021. E-Commerce’s Fast-Tracking Diffusion and Adaptation in Developing Countries. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 02 March. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13160,

Reardon, T., D. Tschirley, L.S.O. Liverpool-Tasie, T. Awokuse, J. Fanzo, B. Minten, R. Vos, M. Dolislager, C. Sauer, R. Dhar, C. Vargas, A. Lartey, A. Raza, B.M. Popkin 2021. The processed food revolution in African food systems and the double burden of malnutrition. Global Food Security 28: 100466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2020.100466

Dolislager, M., Reardon, T., Arslan, A., Fox, L., Liverpool-Tasie, S., Sauer, C., Tschirley, D., 2021. Youth and adult agrifood system employment in developing regions: Rural (Peri-urban to hinterland) vs urban. Journal of Development Studies.  57(4): 571-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1808198 

Liverpool-Tasie, L.S.O, T. Reardon, B. Belton. 2021. “Essential non-essentials”: COVID-19 policy missteps in Nigeria rooted in persistent myths about African food value chains. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. 43(1), March: 205-224. https://doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13139