Agri-food Value Chains Research Articles

Food Safety and Value Chain Coordination in the Context of a Transition Economy: The Role of Agricultural Cooperatives

In Albania development gaps in the area of food safety are calling for stronger vertical coordination within the agrifood value chains. The paper explores the possibility of vertical coordination being strengthened through the development of agricultural cooperatives and informal farmer groups. In two reported case studies, these organizations have been shown to be called into life by the need to advance vertical coordination. Moreover, the case studies reveal that downstream agribusiness agents, who normally oppose farmers’ countervailing power, promote, support, and even initiate cooperatives and farmer groups, in order to implement food safety standards. The emerging cooperation among farmers not only enhances their participation in the value chain but also generates mutual trust.

The spillover effect of direct competition between marketing cooperatives and private intermediaries: Evidence from the Thai rice value chain

Despite the widespread belief that marketing cooperatives’ benefits may extend beyond participating farmers, little is known about the cooperative’s effect on nonparticipating farmers. This paper exploits exogenous variation in language spoken at home in Thailand to obtain instrumental variable estimates of the spillover effect of marketing cooperatives. We hypothesize that farmers who sell rice to private intermediaries in the area where there is direct competition between marketing cooperatives and private intermediaries (treated areas) are likely to receive a higher price than those who sell rice in other areas. Using household-level data of rice farmers in Thailand in the marketing year 2018/19, we find strong evidence that farmers in treated areas receive 10.9% higher prices from private intermediaries than those in comparison areas. Our results provide crucial implications for food policy debates regarding the role of marketing cooperatives in agri-food value chains. In particular, evaluating the inclusiveness of marketing cooperatives toward poor farmers should not be limited to sampling and analyzing its members only. Failure to consider the spillover effect could lead to substantial underestimation of the impact of marketing cooperatives on societal welfare.

Additionality and Implementation Gaps in Voluntary Sustainability Standards

ABSTRACT Voluntary Sustainability Standards have become a popular private governance framework for more sustainable agri-food value chains. However, recent mainstreaming efforts have increased competition between standards and driven down price premiums. This study employs a dataset of 659 Honduran coffee producers to examine whether the most widely used standards in the coffee sector (4C, Fairtrade, Fairtrade/organic, UTZ Certified and Rainforest Alliance) represent effective solutions for improving the social, environmental and economic sustainability practices of smallholder farmers under such conditions. It presents 54 farm-level indicators, compared across five standard systems, and links field results to a discussion of the strategies and governance prospects of voluntary standards. We find that no scheme has managed to grow substantially while maintaining strong additionality: commercially successful standards show little impact, while stricter schemes create high entry barriers and unresolved opportunity costs. Successful mainstreaming would require better cost coverage of sustainability improvements by value chain actors .

Signaling Southern sustainability: When do actors use private or public regulatory authority to market tropical commodities?

The private regulation of agri-food value chains through sustainability standards has proliferated in recent decades, promising producers to differentiate themselves and gain preferential market access. However, in a number of producing countries, laws exist that mirror and go beyond what private labels demand. These countries have two options for placing their sustainable products in the market: signal their national system's equivalence to private schemes, or utilize the existing regulatory framework as favorable preconditions for widespread certification. In framing this choice as a collective reputation challenge, this study analyzes under which conditions states and parastatal actors opt for either approach, provides evidence of the strategies used, and draws conclusions on their respective success and on-the-ground outcomes. Using an in-depth comparative case study of the coffee sectors of Costa Rica and Colombia, the study finds that the divergence in institutional strategies can be explained by three factors: sector-specific institutional capacities; a country's place in the commodity marketplace, which determines the expected added pay-off of certification; and a country's overall international image.

Challenges in transportation policy: speeding up a sustainable agri-food supply chain

A sustainable agri-food supply chain becomes a utopia when transportation policy has no support to develop a sustainable mechanism. This study conducts a literature review to understand the footprint of a sustainable agri-food supply chain based on robust transportation policy and modelling for optimizing efficiency and customer satisfaction. This study relies on the relevant search term and reference source selection with the keyword “transportation policy” and “sustainable agri-food value chain” between 2016-2020. Literature sources identified with online databases from Google Scholars, Science Direct, IEEE Xplore, and other online resources that affordable by Google search engine. Based on 52 manuscripts that were studied in-line with the research context, we find the empirical study tends to conclude that the transportation policy is a critical part of developing a sustainable agri-food supply chain besides the internal process in the agri-food producer. Transportation issues focus on routing problems and acceptable government policy. Simultaneously, the agri-food company’s internal process emphasized lead-time production and distribution, achieve the ultimate goals reducing logistics cost, zero waste production process, and customer satisfaction.

Agri-food Value Chain Revolutions in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Agri-food value chains (AVCs) intermediate the flow of products between largely rural farmers, fisherfolk, or herders and increasingly urban consumers. The theoretical models that historically structured research on the economic development process assumed away AVC functions, however, and AVC firms and workers were necessarily omitted from the household data that generated most empirical findings in the agricultural and development economics literatures. As a result, the discipline has somewhat overlooked the rapid growth and structural change in AVCs over the past few decades that turned AVCs into major employers and sources of value addition, as well as key loci for technology transfer and foreign investment. This paper offers an integrated, structured, empirical narrative of how and why AVC revolutions occur in developing countries, the impacts of those changes, and the abundant economic research opportunities these structural changes afford economists. (JEL L14, L81, O13, O33, Q12, Q13, Q17)

The Contribution of Cereal Grains to Food Security and Sustainability in Africa: Potential Application of UAV in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, and Namibia

Africa is a net importer of food, especially cereal grains, despite the importance of agriculture in the continent. The agricultural growth in Africa has been undermined by low investment in agriculture, poor infrastructure, high population growth rate, and low adoption of technologies. The agri-food value chain in many African countries will benefit from the adoption of appropriate technologies that are available in the digital landscape to leverage the agricultural sector, make it more attractive to the teeming youth population, and to reverse rural-urban migration. Attention to indigenous cereal grains and other crops that are grown locally and processed into different local foods would ensure food security. However, the availability of these crops in the market is often reduced due to damage before harvest by pests and predators leading to economic losses for farmers. In this article, we review the literature from a multidisciplinary perspective on the relevance of African indigenous food grains to food security in general and we highlight the potential application of drones to increase the yield of cereal grains in three regions of the continent—eastern, western, and southern Africa.

Agrifood value chain assessment in developing countries: a case of Indonesia’s cashew sector

A value chain approach is increasingly used in the agrifood sector to help respond to the globalised food system. However, the agrifood value chain in many developing countries faces additional challenges to address any changes regarding the prevalence of smallholder players. Meanwhile, value chain studies are still limited in many developing countries, such as in Indonesia. Therefore, this paper aims to assess agrifood value chain in a developing country context. A qualitative methodology was applied in Indonesia’s cashew sector, specifically in the Sumenep Regency of Madura Island. A value chain mapping tool was used by focusing on governance (vertical-horizontal coordination and information flow) and value addition (safety, quality, and value orientation). The results showed that value chain mapping is a powerful tool to draw the complex interaction within the dynamics between different value chain actors. The exploration in Indonesia’s cashew sector showed that there is a gap in practices between actors in terms of governance and value addition. Therefore, it is recommended that smallholders’ governance participation and value adding activities be improved in order to minimize the gap of practises. The potential follow-up research is to address the maturity level of value chain practice to obtain a rigorous improvement route.

Analysis of the Rice Value Chain in East Timor—The Consumers’ Perspective

The consumer is an important factor to measure the performance of the rice agri-food value chain in East Timor. The purpose of this work is to identify the links in the rice chain, as well as to do the consumers’ characterization, along with their segments. The methodologies used to represent the functioning of consumer preferences are cluster analysis, applied the K-Mean method, qualitative nature, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and regression analysis. It was constituted a sample of 240 rice consumers in the county of Dili, capital of East Timor, and the questionnaire was conducted in the presence of the researcher. As consumers become more aware and experience higher purchasing standards, failure to consider their concerns will affect the profit of value chain participants, many of whom will need to update their practices. The result of KMO statistic, 0.781, shows that the quality of the analysis is good and the null hypothesis of Bartlett’s test of sphericity was rejected. It was found the existence of two components, with the first having a greater weight of variables in relation to distance, transportation and availability, while the second component has a greater weight on variables related to quality, human benefit and healthy living. The first component was considered as Access and the second as Quality. Regarding the segmentation of consumers, we proceeded to create two distinct groups of rice consumers. Group I, composed of 171 individuals, and a Group II, with 69 individuals. Both groups considered rice to be the key food element, particularly important for the Timorese population.

Perspective article: Towards a new venture science model for transforming food systems

Radical transformation of the food system is required to ensure the health of people and the planet. The implementation of policy change to improve food and nutritional security has been slow. Injection of private and public investment to stimulate innovation in complex agri-food value chains to fast-track sustainable solutions is needed. Multi-stakeholder transdisciplinary partnerships facilitate co-creation of solutions that deliver rapid transformational change to food systems. A venture science model which brings together a research organisation, industry and venture capital, to facilitate rapid innovation is discussed. This model replaces pitches to investors and narrowly-focussed industry relationships, with a collaborative opportunity-directed construction process. A case study of innovation in the alternative meat sector is provided.

Bioeconomy as a transforming driver of intensive greenhouse horticulture in SE Spain

Bioeconomy is becoming the main driver transforming European agri-food value chains towards global sustainability in the food supply chain. Intensive horticultural production systems based on medium and low-tech greenhouses are suitable scenarios implementing bioeconomy strategies to achieve sustainability targets. Since the publication of the European Strategy of Bioeconomy in 2012, policy measures intended to boost bioeconomy are responsible for changing what are now considered outdated production systems to more high-tech models capable of responding to climate-change challenges. This article describes the potential for the agri-food supply chain to drive the transition of medium and low-tech intensive greenhouse systems to biobased, circular economy value-chains. Key areas of impact relate to waste valorisation and management, new inputs based on biotechnological innovations, building clusters of innovative delivery partners within the sector, and the increase in public awareness of the impact of the bioeconomy through socio-economic analysis.

Sustainable Collective Innovation in the Agri-Food Value Chain: The Case of the “Aureo” Wheat Supply Chain

This paper contributes to the theoretical debate in agri-food economics on sustainable innovations. Specifically, it aims to define an interpretative model of sustainable innovation processes conceived at the supply chain level, and the determinants promoting these processes. The paper also proposes a best practice of sustainable collective innovation, namely the “Aureo” wheat supply chain. Sustainable collective innovation requires the commitment and involvement of all actors of the agri-food supply chain, while its effectiveness depends on the governance models adopted. The study findings validate the proposed theoretical framework, highlighting several economic, social, and environmental benefits that the process can provide. The results contribute to the debate on the topic, providing useful insights for practitioners and policy-makers.

Farmer groups, collective marketing and smallholder farm performance in rural Ghana

PurposeRapid transformation of agrifood value chains because of population growth, urbanization, rising consumer incomes and increased demand for food quality and safety has resulted in the need for smallholder farmers to coordinate horizontally through group formation and collective marketing to improve farm performance in developing countries. This paper aims to examine the factors that influence farmer group membership and collective marketing decisions and their impacts on smallholder farm performance in rural Ghana.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from a recent survey of 447 rice farmers in rural Ghana, an endogenous switching regression model is employed to account for selection bias arising from both observable and unobservable farmer attributes.FindingsThe data reveal that group members and collective marketing participants obtained higher prices and also incurred lower input costs. The econometric estimates show that age, access to credit, mobile phone ownership, distance to market and road status are the main drivers of group membership and collective marketing decisions. The authors also find positive and significant impacts of farmer group membership and collective marketing on farm net revenues.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings from this study suggest that government and donor support for the formation of farmer groups during implementation of agriculture and value chain interventions should as well incorporate strategies to facilitate collective marketing.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the role farmer groups and collective marketing play in improving smallholder farm performance.

Trade Relationships in the European Pork Value Chain: a Network Analysis

This article aims to analyse the European pig sector and its transformations (e.g. vertical integration and phase specialization).In particular, we will both explore the specialization and territorial concentration of pig production, and the significant changes which have taken place in the trade among European Union countries. Using the network analysis (betweenness centrality, node strength and community detection) applied to Eurostat and fao datasets on production and trade in the period 2000-2016, we will show the emergence of national players and international connections that lead to a larger continental market. Finally, this evidence will be used in the discussion and conclusion to raise wider concerning the working of agrifoodvalue chains, in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability, as well as regulation. This calls for more interdisciplinary analyses of value chains.

Data-driven agriculture for rural smallholdings

Spatial information science has a critical role to play in meeting the major challenges facing society in the coming decades, including feeding a population of 10 billion by 2050, addressing environmental degradation, and acting on climate change. Agriculture and agri-food value-chains, dependent on spatial information, are also central. Due to agriculture's dual role as not only a producer of food, fibre and fuel, but also as a major land, water and energy consumer, agriculture is at the centre of both the food-water-energy-environment nexus and resource security debates. The recent confluence of a number of advances in data analytics, cloud computing, remote sensing, computer vision, robotic and drone platforms, and IoT sensors and networks have lead to a significant reduction in the cost of acquiring and processing data for decision support in the agricultural sector. When combined with cost-effective automation through development of swarm farming technologies, the technology has the potential to decouple productivity and cost efficiency from economies of size, reducing the need to increase farm size to remain economically viable. We argue that these pressures and opportunities are driving agricultural value-chains towards high-resolution data-driven decision-making, where even decisions made by small rural landowners can be data-driven. We survey recent innovations in data, especially focusing on sensor, spatial and data mining technologies with a view to their agricultural application; discuss economic feasibility for small farmers; and identify some technical challenges that need to be solved to reap the benefits. Flexibly composable information resources, coupled with sophisticated data sharing technologies, and machine learning with transparently embedded spatial and aspatial methods are all required.

Entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge acquisition and collaborative performance in agri-food value-chains in emerging markets

PurposeThis study aims to take a whole-of-chain perspective to explore how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) influences collaborative performance in agri-food value-chains through enhancing the acquisition of knowledge.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a survey of 233 actors, including farmers, intermediaries and retailers in one beef cattle value-chain in the Central Highlands, Vietnam. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.FindingsThe actors’ level of EO within a value-chain is positively associated with collaborative performance within the beef value-chain. Additionally, knowledge acquisition partially mediates the relationship between EO and collaborative performance.Research limitations/implicationsGeneralizability is limited because of sampling constraints.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of EO from a whole-of-chain perspective in agri-food value-chains in an emerging economy and has implications for policymakers and agri-food marketers.

Multi-dimensional dynamics and spatial connections in food retail markets in Thailand

ABSTRACTThe diffusion of global retailers and the introduction of ‘modern’ channels of distribution and sourcing, combined with affluent domestic demand for higher-quality fresh produce, have caused significant transformations in food retail systems in the Global South. This paper examines Thai food systems undergoing transformation by drawing on qualitative interviews with key stakeholders along selected agri-food value chains in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Through an analysis of the spaces of interaction in ‘traditional’ and supermarket-driven food-retail value chains, the paper shows that similar food safety and quality requirements are transmitted upstream in both ‘types’ of chain. The paper argues that supermarket-driven agri-food value chains do not evolve or operate separately from ‘traditional’ ones. Distantly located urban wholesale traders and modern food-retail outlets are dependent on and interconnected with similar traders located in villages and towns in rural areas, who perform a pivotal role in product differentiation and in coordinating and monitoring compliance with requirements. The paper ends by discussing how spatial connections in agri-food value chains influence local development patterns in distant but interconnected localities.

SELECTION OF TOMATO CULTIVATION SYSTEMS UNDER SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA

Greenhouse production is the most intensive plant production system, both in terms of yield and investment and inputs. There are different alternatives of farming systems among which producers can choose. To facilitate decision-making it is convenient to develop applications that analyze the alternatives from the point of view of sustainability. The analysis of the sustainability of greenhouse production must be carried out according to the criteria that affect all the processes that make up the agri-food value chain. In this work, the criteria and sub-criteria that influence the sustainability of greenhouse production are analyzed first. Next, the alternatives in the most important cultivation system in the production of greenhouse tomatoes in the Spanish Mediterranean Basin (soil, perlite and nutrient film technique, NFT) are evaluated. The work is carried out based on the opinion of ten experts from the integrated sectors of the agrifood value chain. The results indicate that the sustainability of greenhouse production increases in the order: soil < perlite < NFT due to a higher valuation of the latter alternative in relation to commercial, natural, human, material resources and management versus economic resources

Investigating the role of community of practice for sharing knowledge in agriculture sector

Agriculture is one of the fastest growing sectors. Therefore, movement towards sustainable development requires strong knowledge bases that will be constantly updated. This tendency poses a question about the ways of knowledge sharing. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to investigate the role of information, cooperation and sharing experiences of good practices among farmers in order to develop agricultural sector, and to introduce the Community of Practice as a powerful tool for creating strong network among all key actors of agri-food value chain while considering the experience of the EU SKIN project. In this paper, besides empirical analysis of the related literature, we describe the model of Community of Practice created on base of best practices collected under the project SKIN (Short Supply Chain Knowledge and Innovation Network - H2020). Findings highlight the Community of Practice is able to keep the balance between formal and informal learnings thus minimising the difficulties of understanding and eliminating the informative gap.

Value creation and sorghum-based products: what synergetic actions are needed?

Sorghum is a crop of marginal and vulnerable areas that are highly susceptible to the changing climate. A firm-level survey was conducted to address the level of utilization of the sorghum grain, associated value creation and constraints in the agro-processing segment of the agrifood value chain. Results declare that wheat is the most popular and commercial crop that has been widely utilized for the manufacturing of different food products. Maize is the second potential grain while the large share more allocates to the manufacturing of feed and fortified food products. The grains of teff, rice, and sorghum are majorly restricted to traditional food products. To a very limited extent, the agro-processing utilization of sorghum is more attributed to the manufacturing of baby foods and feed products. The physical features and nutritional qualities of sorghum products, experience and awareness gaps, and consumer perceptions remain to be the major barriers that limit the competitiveness of sorghum. The complex nature of the system demands empirical research, agribusinesses, and development actors to join hands embarking on the enhancement of nutrition, capacity development, product innovations, and demand creation. Moreover, boosting up of farm productivity, promoting farmer-industry partnerships and backup to the infant agro-processing sector opens up the opportunities for the disconnected sorghum growers.