Abstract

PurposeBetween 2006 and 2011, Nicaragua shipped an average of US$9.4 million per year of smallholder-produced fresh taro (Colocasia esculenta) to the USA; however, by 2016, the US market for Nicaraguan taro had effectively collapsed. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the short-lived taro boom from the perspective of complex adaptive systems, showing how shocks, interactions between value chain actors, and lack of adaptive capacity among chain actors together contributed to the collapse of the chain.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were collected from businesses and smallholders in 2010 and 2016 to understand the actors involved, their business relations, and the benefits and setbacks they experienced along the way.FindingsThe results show the capacity of better-off smallholders to engage in a demanding market, but also the struggles faced by more vulnerable smallholders to build new production systems and respond to internal and external shocks. Local businesses were generally unprepared for the uncertainties inherent in fresh horticultural trade or for engagement with distant buyers.Research limitations/implicationsExisting guides and tools for designing value chain interventions will benefit from greater attention to the circumstances of local actors and the challenges of building productive inter-business relations under higher levels of risk and uncertainty.Originality/valueThis case serves as a wake-up call for practitioners, donors, researchers, and the private sector on how to identify market opportunities and the design of more robust strategies to respond to them.

Highlights

  • Since the late 1990s, governments and development agencies have enthusiastically embraced market-based approaches, including value chain development (VCD), to reduce rural poverty, generate employment, and create sustainable enterprises (SNV (Netherlands Development Organization), 2005; Department for International Development, 2008; USAID, 2008; Coles and Mitchell, 2011)

  • The approach challenges governments and civil society to look beyond individual actors, such as smallholders or cooperatives, when considering how to achieve development goals

  • This paper examines the rise and fall of the taro value chain from the perspective of complex adaptive systems (Orr et al, this edition)

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Summary

Introduction

We focus on three aspects, namely internal and external shocks at the national and international levels faced by chain actors during the boom, interactions of smallholders, businesses, and service and input providers to organize the production and marketing of taro for distant buyers; and adaptation by individual actors and the system as a whole when confronted by the changes in the external environment These include the effects of biological and ecosystems, the local or micro socio-economic environment, including human and cultural systems, and the political and legal environment as it relates to business organization and performance. Uncertainty stemmed from various factors, including limited experience in international fresh produce trade, lack of specialized skills in taro production and post-harvest management, and weak linkages between key actors in the chain These failings reflect pressures on development agencies, and to some extent on private exporters, to identify “quick wins” for investors and to overlook or minimize the time and resources required to build technical capacity and social capital along the value chain. The conclusion identifies some key lessons for the design of relatively high-risk value chain interventions with smallholders

Horticulture value chains as a complex system
Findings
Conclusion: learning from failure

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