Adoption of food safety measures: The role of bargaining and processing producer organizations

Mercy Mwambi,Simon Oosting,Patience Mshenga,Jos Bijman

doi:10.1016/j.njas.2020.100337

Abstract

Increasing demand for safe food in developing countries entails meeting stringent food safety requirements. Food retailers and regulatory bodies impose food safety measures related to production and handling of farm produce. For smallholders to remain competitive in such a system, institutional arrangements are necessary. We examine the role of producer organizations (POs) in influencing safe food production behaviours among farmers. Using data from 11 expert interviews and a quantitative survey involving 595 smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya, a propensity score matching estimation is employed to assess membership effects. We show that membership in POs positively and significantly influences smallholders’ adoption of food safety measures related to milk storage and the milking area. We highlight the importance of social incentives in improving food safety adoption among farmers even when price incentives are absent. Our recommendation is that PO policies that alleviate barriers to food safety adoption among farmers will be helpful in scaling up adoption.

Highlights

Demand for safe food in developing countries has increased because of two main factors: the modernization of food systems through the rise of supermarkets that impose food safety requirements (Reardon et al, 2019), and the outbreaks of food-borne diseases that, according to World Health Organization report, caused 91 million cases of foodborne diseases and 137,000 deaths in Africa in 2010 (WHO, 2015)
Despite the importance of safe food, improvement in food safety remains a major challenge in developing countries because of a lack of knowledge, low incentives to invest in food safety along the food value chain, the weakness of the public institutions responsible for regulatory enforcement and limited empirical knowledge regarding food safety application and food-borne diseases (Hoffmann et al, 2019)
Milking area measures are important since dairy farm surroundings can promote spread of pathogens and diseases if unclean

Summary

Introduction

Demand for safe food in developing countries has increased because of two main factors: the modernization of food systems through the rise of supermarkets that impose food safety requirements (Reardon et al, 2019), and the outbreaks of food-borne diseases that, according to World Health Organization report, caused 91 million cases of foodborne diseases and 137,000 deaths in Africa in 2010 (WHO, 2015). Despite the importance of safe food, improvement in food safety remains a major challenge in developing countries because of a lack of knowledge, low incentives to invest in food safety along the food value chain, the weakness of the public institutions responsible for regulatory enforcement and limited empirical knowledge regarding food safety application and food-borne diseases (Hoffmann et al, 2019). Nonethe less, given the perishable nature of agricultural products and the de mand for safe food, institutional arrangements that enhance skills and coordination mechanisms are essential to improve food safety compli ance in the value chain

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