Economic Growth Corridors Through a Value-Chain Lens: The Case of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania’s Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) is a role-model economic growth corridor (EGC). It aims at easing the incorporation of smallholder farmers into global and regional value chains through partnerships with larger agricultural companies. EGCs in general and SAGCOT in particular are not only about upgrading infrastructure. They in fact address numerous challenges to local producers, including the lack of finance and knowledge relating to markets and production as well as their low bargaining power in global value chains (GVCs). This chapter starts with a summary of the conceptual literature on GVCs, of global production networks as well as of Kaplinsky’s understanding of power dynamics within GVCs. The authors then assess SAGCOT, showing how the initiative seeks to address existing inequalities and unfavourable power dynamics in GVC development. Potential challenges that SAGCOT faces are discussed, and corresponding policy recommendations given.