Value Chain Interventions Research Articles

Reducing deforestation through value chain interventions in countries emerging from conflict: The case of the Colombian cocoa sector

Sustainability commitments by private sector actors are emerging as interventions to help reduce global deforestation. Much attention is placed on the forest conservation impact of these interventions in areas where commodity production constitutes a main driver of deforestation. It is, however, less clearly understood what role they could play in areas where the production of commodities is not evidently leading to the loss of forest and how they could contribute to other objectives including sustainable rural development and peacebuilding. In this paper, we examine the potential of the cocoa sector in Colombia in achieving deforestation reduction and peacebuilding simultaneously, as aimed by the country's Cocoa, Forests and Peace Initiative. Results from correlations and spatially explicit analyses show that regardless of its widespread production across Colombia, in the past fifteen years cocoa has not been an important driver of deforestation. This suggests that efforts to end deforestation in the Colombian cocoa sector emerged following global trends, and not because of an evident link between cocoa production and deforestation. Furthermore, results from spatial clustering analyses highlight areas where different types of value chain interventions may be appropriate to parallel forest conservation and peacebuilding, while interviews with key actors in the cocoa sector provide clues as to how these interventions should be developed and implemented. Specifically, our results show that narratives around approaches to achieve zero deforestation from agricultural commodities should (1) be adjusted to local contexts, (2) incorporate location-specific development needs, (3) complement existing rural development efforts, (4) enhance collaboration among actors that operate both within and beyond the value chain, and (5) apply high-resolution data to assess deforestation-commodity relations and verify zero-deforestation commitments. These considerations are particularly relevant in contexts where commodity production is not evidently leading to deforestation, as in the case of cocoa production in Colombia.

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.

Making Cash Crop Value Chains Nutrition-Sensitive: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment in Rural Sierra Leone

With a strong global commitment to ending food insecurity and malnutrition, policymakers are increasingly grappling with how to make smallholder agriculture nutrition-sensitive. While the need to address these problems on multiple fronts is widely recognized, there is limited evidence on the nutritional impacts of integrated interventions in export-oriented sectors in developing countries. This paper aims to bridge this gap by evaluating the nutritional impacts of an innovative nutrition-sensitive value chain intervention, uniquely designed to address food and nutrition insecurity among smallholder cocoa, coffee, and cashew farmers in Sierra Leone. The diversity scores of household, maternal, and child diets are the main dietary outcomes employed in the study. Estimation of programme effects is carried out using the inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment, which combines the propensity score method with regression adjustments to correct for selection bias and accommodate multiple treatments. We do not find a positive impact of supporting cash crop production on the diversity of household, maternal, and child diets unless it is combined with providing information on nutrition. Specifically, combining both interventions is found to significantly improve dietary diversity and the consumption of nutritious foodstuffs at household and individual levels, in comparison with non-intervention households. We found improvements in nutrition knowledge and women empowerment to be the main pathways linking the combined intervention to better dietary outcomes. The results suggest that nutrition-sensitive investments in cash crop sectors promise to be an effective way to increase dietary diversity and sustainably reduce micronutrient deficiencies among nutritionally vulnerable smallholder families in high-value export crop sectors.

Designing interventions in local value chains for improved health and nutrition: Insights from Malawi

Despite the strong interest on the role of agri-food value chains in advancing health and nutrition goals, guidance on how to actually design and assess related development programming has only recently emerged. This paper begins with a brief review of research on nutrition-sensitive value chains in developing countries. It then presents the Value Chains and Nutrition framework for intervention design that explores food supply and demand conditions across a portfolio of local value chains that are relevant for improving nutrition outcomes. We explore the framework in a case study on rural Malawi. Available evidence highlights the dominance of maize in diets, but also the willingness of rural households to consume other nutritious foods (e.g. leafy greens, tree fruits, dried fish) during the year. Addressing the supply constraints (e.g. low productivity, seasonality) and demand constraints (e.g. low income, preference for maize) along local value chains will require carefully sequenced interventions within and across value chains. Strategies for achieving nutrition goals in this context will require stronger collaborative ties between NGOs, government agencies and the private sector and deeper learning among stakeholders than has typically been the case. We conclude with recommendations for future work on frameworks and tools for supporting the design of value chain interventions with potential to advance health and nutrition goals.

Local value chain interventions: a systematic review

PurposeThe purpose of this paper twofold: first, to review the current state of knowledge regarding local value chain (LVC) interventions in the context of international agricultural research and development; and, secondly, by synthesising the empirical findings from LVC projects, to provide guidance for future research and intervention design.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilises systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis guidelines to review and synthesise recent research papers and case studies dealing specifically with the development of LVCs, authored by professionals affiliated with development agencies and international research consortiums.FindingsThe paper identifies a novel two-phase characterisation of LVC interventions. Phase 1 identifies opportunities for interventions, which are characterised as typologies and presented upon a spectrum of value chain functionality from underdeveloped to mature. Phase 2 is the selection and implementation of strategies to achieve the identified opportunities from Phase 1, and the paper characterises these strategies per the domain of value chain functionality which they target.Research limitations/implicationsThe interaction between context, socio-economic constraints and intervention strategies is still a poorly understood feature of value chain interventions, and the paper posits that a greater understanding of these interactions is crucial to the success of value chain interventions.Originality/valueThe paper provides the first synthesis of LVC interventions, while outlining research priorities and knowledge gaps required to design interventions which are consummate to the context and functionality of a prioritised chain.

Global value chains and policy practice: The making of linkages in the Ivorian cashew industry

The global value chain framework has gained increasing prominence as a policy tool for resource-based industrialization. Focusing on synergies between the commodity-producing and related manufacturing and service sectors, value chain interventions assume that buyer-supplier linkages facilitate the upgrading of local industries. This study investigates these synergistic assumptions in the context of the Ivorian cashew industry. The Ivorian case exemplifies how the value chain concept, with its associated focus on local-global linkages, has placed collaboration with foreign lead firms at the heart of the industrial policy agenda. While these collective arrangements are crucial for negotiating inter-firm relationships along global value chains, this study finds little evidence that they have initiated upgrading for local industries. Instead, the emergence of foreign buyers as strategic partners for policy-makers has created opportunities for these lead actors to reinforce their dominant position, stemming from access to finance and technology.

Analysis of Specialty Coffee Business Performances: Focus on Management of Farmer Organizations in Indonesia

Indonesian specialty coffee farmer organization is established by Government of Indonesia (GoI) for managing coffee production, processing, and marketing in farmer group level. Through farm-level industrialization program, the GoI supported coffee farmer organizations in several specialty coffee producing regions for increasing farmers’ livelihoods. These farmer organizations are encouraged to produce higher quality of coffee in term of specialty coffee and link directly with buyers. Therefore, the farmer groups would obtain the profits that can be shared to the members of farmer organizations. This research aims firstly to understand the performances, challenges and risk management of specialty coffee business on farmer organizations level across Indonesia, and secoundly to understand the profits gained by specialty coffee farmer organizations. The research has been conducted in several specialty coffee producing regions, including Bali, East Java, Flores and South Sulawesi. The case study and ethnography were carried out by collecting data through direct observation and in depth interviews. Number of respondents were 27 producer organizations which were selected by judgement sampling method. The data were analyzed by using descriptive method and profit analysis. The research results show that alternative model of value chain interventions (VCIs) is required for improving the profits of specialty coffee business on farmer organizations level and farmers’ livelihoods. Maximization the VCIs to increase the benefits for farmers, the VCIs should be conducted by incorporating both off-farm and on-farm aspects.

Value Chains and Diet Quality: A Review of Impact Pathways and Intervention Strategies

Low and middle-income countries increasingly face a triple burden of malnutrition encompassing undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and excessive energy consumption contributing to overweight and obesity. Food systems are also becoming more complex, supported by investments in food processing and retailing. Traditional approaches addressing hunger, typically based on agricultural development, are deemed insufficient alone to address the problem and attention is now being directed to food value chains, although experience is currently limited. To assess the state of science and identify knowledge gaps, an integrative review of the broad topic of value chains and diet quality was undertaken, with particular focus on interventions and their related impact pathways. Interventions were classified according to their primary orientation: to increase the availability, accessibility, or desirability of nutritious food. We identified 24 separate interventions associated with 10 different impact pathways, demonstrating the numerous entry points and large potential for value chain interventions to influence diet quality. However, case study evidence regarding effectiveness remains scant. Most studies addressed individual nutrient-rich commodities that could address a nutritional deficiency in the community of interest. Rarely was overall diet quality assessed, and future studies could benefit from taking a wider perspective of dietary patterns and food substitutions. The value chain analytical approach was deemed valuable due to its consumer orientation that seeks to understand how food products are used and what motivates their choice. The systems perspective is also important as it considers the roles of actors involved in food production, distribution, marketing, and regulation. However, few studies directly engaged with the subject of the local food environment as the bridge connecting food production and food choice. The challenge is to combat the increasing prevalence of processed foods of low nutritional value through interventions that lead to nutritious food becoming more conveniently available, affordable, and desirable.

Distribution of agricultural productivity gains in selected Feed the Future African countries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine investments in selected Feed the Future countries in Africa. Design/methodology/approach The authors examine three investments in Feed the Future countries (e.g. Rwanda and Uganda) in the context of non-traded goods, exports and imports. These investments include research and development in Ugandan cassava production, a value chain intervention in the coffee market channel in Rwanda and a program to increase the use of fertilizer for maize production in Rwanda. The authors also stress the importance of distributional impacts in terms of policymaking. Findings The results show that while there can be net gains from each investment discussed, the distributional effects of each are very different. Originality/value The findings will be useful for the development community and agribusiness policymaking.

Supermarket-Led Development and the Neglect of Traditional Food Value Chains: Reflections on Indonesia’s Agri-Food System Transformation

The rapid expansion of modern food retail encapsulated in the so-called ‘supermarket revolution’ is often portrayed as a pivotal driving force in the modernization of agri-food systems in the Global South. Based on fieldwork conducted on horticulture value chains in West Java and South Sulawesi, this paper explores this phenomenon and the concerted efforts that government and corporate actors undertake with regard to agri-food value chain interventions and market modernization in Indonesia. The paper argues that after more than 15 years of ‘supermarket revolution’ in Indonesia, traditional food retail appears not to be in complete demise, but rather adaptive and resilient to its modern competitors. The analysis of local manifestations of supermarket-led agricultural development suggests that traditional markets can offer certain advantages for farmers over supermarket-driven value chains. The paper further identifies and discusses two areas that have so far been neglected by research and policymaking and which warrant further investigation: (i) the simultaneous transformations in traditional food value chains and their relation to modern markets, and (ii) the social and environmental performances of modern vis-à-vis traditional food value chains.

Institutional environments and the livelihood impacts of voluntary sustainability standards: A Village‐based analysis from southern Sumatra's coffee sector

Lead roasting firms are operating through Indonesia's coffee exporters to introduce voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) in an attempt to secure supply, and to simultaneously meet corporate social responsibility requirements, even as empirical studies continue to show uncertain benefits for producer livelihoods. Value chain interventions like VSS, however, are not rolled out over a blank canvas, and many contributing factors determine their overall impact on livelihoods, particularly the local institutional environment. This study assesses the extent to which variability of empirical outcomes is determined by the institutional environment, by identifying specific processes through which VSS interact with pre‐existing social, political and economic institutions to influence livelihood outcomes. These include: firm‐specific corporate strategies (including producer training); livelihood strategies of households (including access to assets); government programs; and local political economy, as manifest particularly through patronage between traders and suppliers. VSS have thereby become an additional institutional layer shaping livelihood strategies and regional development outcomes, best viewed as providing access to a new social network that may be exploited by producers. The interaction between VSS programs, livelihood strategies and pre‐existing institutional environments in a particular place often dictates the variable outcomes for producers, making attribution of impact causation to VSS enrolment problematic.

Principles of innovation to build nutrition-sensitive food systems in South Asia

Innovations within global food systems have contributed to the predicament known as the triple burden of malnutrition – the co-existence of hunger and micronutrient deficiency with the diseases of overnutrition, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. We use the case of the triple burden in South Asia to demonstrate analytically that innovation is a double-edged sword, with positive and negative potential, rather than a simple good. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals that target food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture (e.g. SDGs 2, 3 and 12), the countries of South Asia need more innovation, but, first, they would also benefit from some intelligent reflection about what innovation means, the directions it should take, and its risks and downsides alongside its benefits. In the present juncture, South Asian countries have an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other developing nations, and choose from alternative options to steer their own course. In this paper, we discuss how innovation has contributed to the present situation and ask how alternative kinds of innovation may enable South Asian countries to escape from the triple burden. We describe a conceptual framework that may be useful for thinking about how innovation pathways can be created and directed towards the goal of improving nutritional outcomes in South Asia. The framework draws attention to the direction of socio-technical change, the distribution of technologies and their risks and benefits, and the diversity of possible innovation pathways (STEPS Centre, 2010). We illustrate these points using examples of innovations in the areas of agricultural production, value chain interventions, and policy and institutional reforms.

Milk and the city: Raw milk challenging the value claims of value chains

ABSTRACTThis article assesses two models of dairy production and distribution to the large city of Dar es Salaam. One is urban and peri-urban raw milk production through territorial markets and the symbiotic food system and the other a dairy value chain intervention. The raw milk system is remarkably resilient and gives lower prices to milk drinkers and better returns to small-scale farmers. The value chain intervention provides opportunities for some dairy farmers but can’t compete and favors corporate entities less aligned with most farmers’ and city residents’ interests. Policy maker’s preference for value chain interventions appears to be ideological as it is not justified by the outcomes, but support for alternatives is growing and needs to be built on.

Roaming through the Maze of Maize in Northern Ghana. A Systems Approach to Explore the Long-Term Effects of a Food Security Intervention

Central to food security interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa stands the value chain approach. The underlying idea is that connecting farmers to input and output markets and sources of knowledge and technology will enhance their food security status. In spite of positive impacts measured in especially food supply, there is scant evidence of the long-term effects on food security. For a better grasp of the impacts of a maize value chain intervention in North Ghana, we have experimented with an approach that focuses on interactions and feedback loops between the value chain and its local context. Such approach allowed us to identify dynamics that affect food security in the long run. In the case of Northern Ghana farming systems, household income and diets are increasingly dependent on maize, which increases risk of food insecurity in case of climate setbacks or market shocks. The exercise reveals how a linear value chain approach obscures the dynamic effects cascading from the intervention that may actually hamper food security in the long run. A systems approach may help to better grasp the consequences of external interventions at the local level.

Climate action for food security in South Asia? Analyzing the role of agriculture in nationally determined contributions to the Paris agreement

ABSTRACTThe Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted under the Paris Agreement propose a country’s contribution to global mitigation efforts and domestic adaptation initiatives. This paper provides a systematic analysis of NDCs submitted by South Asian nations, in order to assess how far their commitments might deliver meaningful contributions to the global 2°C target and to sustainable broad-based adaptation benefits. Though agriculture-related emissions are prominent in emission profiles of South Asian countries, their emission reduction commitments are less likely to include agriculture, partly because of a concern over food security. We find that income-enhancing mitigation technologies that do not jeopardize food security may significantly augment the region’s mitigation potential. In the case of adaptation, analysis shows that the greatest effort will be directed towards protecting the cornerstones of the ‘green revolution’ for ensuring food security. Development of efficient and climate-resilient agricultural value chains and integrated farming bodies will be important to ensuring adaptation investment. Potentially useful models of landscape level climate resilience actions and ecosystem-based adaptation are also presented, along with estimates of the aggregate costs of agricultural adaptation. Countries in the region propose different mixes of domestic and foreign, and public and private, adaptation finance to meet the substantial gaps.Key policy insightsThough substantial potential for mitigation of agricultural emissions exists in South Asia, governments in the region do not commit to agricultural emissions reductions in their NDCs.Large-scale adoption of income-enhancing technologies is the key to realizing agricultural mitigation potential in South Asia, whilst maintaining food security.Increasing resilience and profitability through structural changes, value chain interventions, and landscape-level actions may provide strong options to build adaptive capacity and enhance food security.Both private finance (autonomous adaptation) and international financial transfers will be required to close the substantial adaptation finance gap

Determinants of smallholder farmers’ participation in rice value chains in Uganda

This study explored the key determinants of smallholder farmers’ participation in the One Stop Centre Farmer Association (OSCA) rice value chains in Uganda. Data were collected from 98 respondents in Luwero and Bugiri districts using focus group discussions and 20 key informant interviews, and analysed with NVIVO software. The findings indicated that style of leadership, trust, cohesive networks and support services were key determinants of participation. Minimal participation of some members occurred due to unrealistic expectations and incompetent leadership. Further, addressing OSCA objectives can mitigate ensuing expectations. Along with this, strengthening the OSCA leadership to entrench transparency and establishment of business models for integration of value chain interventions into the wider livelihood strategies is important in order to cater for interests of all the members.Key words: Participation, Smallholder farmers, Value chains, Networks.

Upgrading for whom? Relationship coffee, value chain interventions and rural development in Indonesia

Abstract Value chain upgrading interventions have emerged in recent years as a dominant approach to rural development. In coffee value chains, upgrading opportunities are presented by the growth in consumption of specialty coffees, which are associated with direct engagement with producer communities by roasting firms, along with an apparent increased commitment to social responsibility. Known in the industry as “relationship coffee”, such interventions align with a value chain approach to development and are promoted as offering upgrading opportunities for otherwise marginalized rural communities. In this article, we critique the dominant development discourse of relationship coffee in Indonesia via three case studies of livelihoods and local agrarian dynamics across three coffee-growing communities on the islands of Sulawesi, Bali and Java. We find that the relationship coffee model does present opportunities for producer upgrading. However, these benefits have been subsequently captured by key individuals within the producer community who are able to accumulate wealth and consolidate their social position. As it is currently implemented in Indonesia, the relationship coffee model has reproduced local patterns of inequality rather than contributing to poverty alleviation efforts. These insights suggest the urgent need to develop a critical political economy of upgrading in the global value chain and rural development literature.

Value chain development of bay leaf in Nepal: an impact assessment

ABSTRACTWe assessed an impact of bay leaf value chain intervention programme on household welfare in mountain agroforestry context. We used primary survey data from project and comparison villages and propensity score matching for creating a valid counterfactual. Results indicate that households in the project villages planted 75 per cent more bay leaf trees, produced 170 per cent more bay leaves and sold more quality products at higher prices than households in comparison villages; per-capita household income increased by NPR 5000–7300, share of bay leaf income in total household income increased by 8–10 per cent and level of poverty declined by 6–8 per cent. Households with female respondents benefited more in some aspects but not so in others, especially in enrolling children in school.

‘Milk for Milk, Water for Water’: Analysing Pakistan’s Dairy Innovation

Interventions in agri-food value chains are thought to potentially make important contributions towards enhancing agriculture’s role in nutrition. Some frameworks have begun to identify sets of requirements for pro-nutrition value chains. Pakistan’s dairy sector has been the focusof a business-driven innovation which introduced ultra-high temperature (UHT)-treated milk in aseptic packaging. This was expected to relieve existing constraints in production and distribution, raise incomes for producers, and increase the supply of an affordable nutrient-dense food to consumers. While this innovation appeared to fulfil most requirements ofa pro-nutrition value chain, it ultimately failed to act as a bridge between farmers and consumers. Instead, it led to the introduction of non-dairy products and imported raw materials. This case study shows that while existing frameworks take a relatively static view of whether an innovation prospectively fulfils certain requirements, businesses can quickly alter entire value chains in response to market conditions.

Ambition meets reality: lessons from the taro boom in Nicaragua

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.