Wheat Value Chain Research Articles

Early estimation of glutelin to gliadin ratio in wheat grain using high-dimensional and hyperspectral reflectance

Precise and timely estimation of the glutelin-to-gliadin ratio (Glu/Gli) in wheat grain is pivotal for crop monitoring, as it is a crucial quality indicator ensuring the production of high-quality wheat flour. Despite the recognized potential of hyperspectral technology in crop phenotype estimation, its application to estimate Glu/Gli in wheat grains faces challenges due to complex spectral-chemical relationships and the influence of growing seasons. This study addresses this gap by cultivating 11 wheat varieties and collecting high-dimensional hyperspectral data from field experiments during various growth stages of wheat (2018–2019 and 2019–2020). Utilizing vegetation indices (VIs) in conjunction with linear mixed-effects model (LMM) and random forest regression model (RFR), it constructs a robust Glu/Gli estimation model (with a Glu/Gli range of 1.063 to 2.218). Results reveal that a singular VI application suffers from data limitations, while the integration of multiple VIs significantly enhances estimation accuracy. The mid-grain filling period emerges as a critical stage for accurate Glu/Gli estimation, with TCARI (transformed chlorophyll absorption reflectance index) demonstrating notable significance and high correlation. In model performance, RFR (R2 = 0.691, rRMSE = 0.096, RPD = 1.872, RER = 6.028) outperforms LMM (R2 = 0.477, rRMSE = 0.131, RPD = 1.383, RER = 4.453), exhibiting superior accuracy in estimating grain Glu/Gli for diverse wheat varieties. This study introduces a rapid and accurate approach for early wheat grain Glu/Gli estimation, offering valuable insights for wheat value chain and precision farming.

Food Security: A Critical Analysis of Wheat Procurement, Transportation, and Storage Challenges in Punjab, Pakistan

This research aims to analyze food insecurity in Pakistan, with a specific focus on wheat crop within the Punjab province. It investigates the key issues, their causes, and proposes potential solutions to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of wheat procurement, transportation, and storage systems in Punjab. The study employed a mixed-methods approach incorporating field observation, data analysis, and questionnaires administered to district food controllers regarding the smuggling of wheat crop. Wheat procurement by the Punjab government was thoroughly analyzed and an overview of the wheat value chain is presented based on interviews with key informers, site visits, and observation. A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was conducted to evaluate the viability of implementing grain storage silos in Punjab. The project is financially viable with a payback period of 5-6 years. Moreover, a survey of field officers was carried out to determine the scope and the determinants of wheat smuggling from Punjab. The findings of this research provide valuable information to policymakers, government agencies, and stakeholders in designing effective interventions to enhance food security and to address the specific challenges faced in the wheat sector of Punjab, Pakistan.

Spectroscopy‐based prediction of 73 wheat quality parameters and insights for practical applications

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesQuality assessment of bread wheat is time‐consuming and requires the determination of many complex characteristics. Because of its simplicity, protein content prediction using near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) serves as the primary quality attribute in wheat trade. To enable the prediction of more complex traits, information from Raman and fluorescence spectra is added to the NIR spectra of whole grain and extracted flour. Model robustness is assessed by predictions across cultivars, locations, and years. The prediction error is corrected for the measurement error of the reference methods.FindingsSuccessful prediction, robustness testing, and measurement error correction were achieved for several parameters. Predicting loaf volume yielded a corrected prediction error RMSECV of 27.5 mL/100 g flour and an R² of 0.86. However, model robustness was limited due to data distribution, environmental factors, and temporal influences.ConclusionsThe proposed method was proven to be suitable for applications in the wheat value chain. Furthermore, the study provides valuable insights for practical implementations.Significance and NoveltyWith up to 1200 wheat samples, this is the largest study on predicting complex characteristics comprising agronomic traits; dough rheological parameters measured by Extensograph, micro‐doughLAB, and GlutoPeak; baking trial parameters like loaf volume; and specific ingredients, such as grain protein content, sugars, and minerals.

Multi‐location trials identify stable high‐yielding spring bread and durum wheat cultivars in Mexico

AbstractDetermining the stability and consistency of grain yield performance requires accurate evaluation of genotypes in different environments. In Mexico, annual national spring wheat irrigated trials (ENTRI) are conducted to assess elite bread (Triticum aestivum L.) and durum (Triticum durum L.) wheat performance in different testing environments (TEs) in the main wheat‐growing areas. These trials provide data supporting release of new cultivars and aim to also address Mexican wheat value chain grain needs. This study analyzed grain yield performance of 30 bread and durum wheat cultivars grown in trials in the 2012–2013 and 2013–2014 growing cycles conducted across TEs in northwest, north, and central Mexico. Environmental variability (location, sowing timing, and irrigation schemes) across the ENTRI enabled genotype by environment interaction to be effectively evaluated. Bread and durum wheat genotypes with high and stable grain yield were also identified and compared across TEs of the wheat‐growing areas of Mexico. The bread wheat cultivars Bacorehuis F2015 and Borlaug100 F2014, and the durum cultivars Barobampo C2015, CONASIST C2015, and Anatoly C2011 were high yielding and gave stable performance in most of the TEs. This analysis demonstrates the utility of multi‐year, multi‐environment testing and analysis to identify improved wheat cultivars to meet wheat production demand in Mexico. It also provides useful testing and analysis methods for selection of suitable broadly as well as locally adapted varieties in other wheat producing regions of the world.

Estimates of Food Losses and Wastes at Each Node of the Wheat Value Chain in Morocco: Implications on Food and Energy Security, Natural Resources, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Several research and development efforts have been made to ensure food security in developing countries. Dissemination of improved agricultural technologies was used as the main avenue through which some increases in food supply have been achieved. However, food insecurity remains a major challenge. This paper argues and provides empirical evidence that reducing food loss and waste can be an effective food and energy security, and natural resource, and environmental conservation strategy. Following the life cycle framework, the annual amount of wheat-based food lost or wasted from farm-to-fork in Morocco was estimated at 4 million tons (equivalent to 36% of total supply) valued at US$1.0 billion. Among all nodes, the magnitudes of farm management-related losses, wastage during consumption, and storage losses rank first to third accounting for about 17.4%, 7.92%, and 7.06%, respectively of total wheat supply in the country. Were these losses and wastes entirely prevented, Morocco would have been able to feed 29.3 million more people, or save 1.79 million hectares of land, 2.66 billion m3 of water, and 64.28 million GJ of energy, and prevented the emission from landfills of at least 16.61 million kg of methane annually. Besides the ongoing efforts to disseminate agricultural technologies, the Moroccan government needs to develop short- and medium-term national strategies to reduce food losses and wastage particularly targeting the storage and consumption nodes. Replacing bread subsidy with food vouchers targeting only the needy and creation of public awareness about the magnitudes and consequences of food loss and wastage alone may go long way in reducing them.

Disentangling the impact of a multiple-component project on SDG dimensions: The case of durum wheat value chain development in Oromia (Ethiopia)

• Smallholder farmer’s participation in agricultural value chains positively affects the achievement of SDG2, SDG4 and SDG16. • Integrated interventions combining multiple components are more effective than stand-alone component interventions (i.e. one component only) in achieving SDGs. • Collective action is key to support smallholder farmer’s agricultural productivity growth and improved food intake. The overall objective of this paper is to assess the impact of a value chain development project – the AVCPO in the Bale region (Oromia, Ethiopia) – on smallholder households focusing on the relationship between the food security goal (SDG2) and other SDG-related outcomes such as education (SDG4) and collective action and social capital (SDG16). Possible co-benefits and synergies among the SDGs are explored using a variety of approaches ranging from instrument variable techniques to evaluate the project overall impact on the various SDGs, multi-valued treatment effect analysis to assess which project component is more effective in achieving the expected impacts, and causal mediation modelling to evaluate to what extent collective action and social capital can play a role in achieving food security and education. Our study shows that the aggregate impact is positive and significant on most of the considered outcomes, namely food security (SDG2) except diet diversification, education (SDG4) of girls but not of boys, and collective action (SDG16), while social capital (SDG16) is significant only as far as horizontal relationships within the community are created. Disentangling the aggregate impact, we show that combined treatments (e.g. training plus storage facilities and marketing through cooperatives) generally return larger impacts than stand-alone treatments (e.g. training only). Finally, our study finds that collective action (SDG16) is an important channel that favors food security improvement (SDG2) but only to a lesser extent better education (SDG4).

Hermetic Bags Help Afghan Rural Women Preserve Wheat Flour during Winter.

Simple SummaryAfghan women face enormous challenges storing wheat flour during the winter due to high relative humidity and insect pests. These challenges result in poor-quality baking wheat flour. We conducted an experiment in Herat province, Afghanistan, to assess whether hermetic bags would preserve wheat flour during the wintertime when relative humidity is high. Forty women from two districts participated in this experiment. Each woman stored 25 kg of wheat flour in a Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bag and a polypropylene (PP) woven bag. The results showed that the moisture content, color, and baking properties of wheat flour stored in PICS bags for six months did not change. No insects were observed in wheat flour stored in PICS bags. However, wheat flour stored in PP bags had high moisture content and insect pests. The price of wheat flour stored in PICS bags increased over time, and that stored in PP bags decreased. Hermetic bags can be used to safely store wheat flour for six months in areas with high relative humidity conditions. Storing wheat flour in hermetic bags would help improve food security for millions of wheat consumers in developing countries.On-farm preservation of wheat flour is a challenge due to insect pests and high relative humidity. This experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of hermetic bags in preserving wheat flour stored by women during the wintertime when relative humidity is high. Forty women (households) from two districts in Herat province, Afghanistan, stored their wheat flour for 6 months. Each woman stored 25 kg of wheat flour in a Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bag and a polypropylene (PP) woven bag. Moisture content, insect population, flour color, bread taste, and profitability of storage were assessed. Moisture content and insect population significantly increased in PP bags after six months of storage, while no changes were observed in PICS bags. There was a significant negative correlation between wheat flour color and moisture content (r = −70.7, p < 0.001) and insect population (r = −79.9, p < 0.001). Wheat flour stored in PICS bags for 6 months retained its color and produced better bread than that stored in PP bags. Storing wheat flour in PICS bags for six months showed a return on investments (ROI) of +16.9% against −33% for the PP bag. Farm households and other wheat value chain actors can safely store wheat flour in hermetic bags for up to six months under high relative humidity conditions. This would help improve food security for millions of wheat consumers in developing countries.

Determinants of wheat value chain in case of North Shewa Zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia

The main objective of the study is to identify the determinants of wheat value chain in case of North Shewa Zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia. The researchers used multistage purposive random sampling technique to select representative households in the study area. The ordinary least square output revealed that production of wheat, price of wheat and secondary and tertiary education of the household positively and significantly affect supply of wheat to the market. On the other hand, distance from the market and distance from the main road have negative and significant effect on supply of wheat. Moreover, the multinomial logit regression result showed that household family size and market information have positive and significant effect while distance from the market and ownership of livestock have negative and significant effect on smallholder farmers’ market participation. The binary logit model also indicates that land holding, access to market information, total livestock and primary education affected positively and significantly. Therefore, policies aiming at increasing farmer’s awareness of producing value added wheat produce to enhance value creations are recommended to strengthen chain development.

Review of Wheat Value Chain in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, agriculture contributes over 35.8 percent to the national gross domestic product (GDP), almost 90 percent of export and 72.7percent of employment. Wheat production in 2020 for Ethiopia was 5,100 thousand tons. Ethiopia is the second largest wheat producers in Sub Saharan Africa next to South Africa, with a potential expansion to 1.3 million hectare. The objective of this review is to identify wheat value chain the key actors and their roles in wheat value chain and challenges and opportunities of wheat value chain in Ethiopia. The main actors in the chain include producers, processor, assembler, wholesaler, retailers, and consumers whereas the indirect actors are financial institutions, governments, NGOs). Marketing channel is a business structure of interdependent organizations involved in the process of making the product or service available for consumption starting from product origin. In terms of regional production potential Oromia contributes (57%), Amhara (28%), SNNP (8.7%) and Tigray (6.2%). These show that there is a weak linkage among the wheat value chain actors in Ethiopia. One of the indicators for this weak linkage is the absence (very low level) of linkage between producers and millers few of the wheat produced is directly sold to millers. Keywords: Value Chain, Wheat, Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/77-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2022

CALIDENA methodology for quality infrastructure service assessment and improvement in wheat value chains

Wheat is one of Ethiopia's most important cereal crops in terms of the area of land allocated, the volume produced, and the number of farmers engaged in its production. About 4.7 million farmers produce 3.9 million tons of wheat across 1.6 million hectares of land. Despite the significant potential of the country, some challenges exist to attain wheat self-sufficiency. These challenges spread across the wheat value chain (WVC); wherein quality-related issues are prominent. Therefore, assessing the national quality infrastructure (NQI) service and offering mitigation schemes is a goal to pursue. To do so, this paper evaluates NQI services in the WVC and proposes an improvement mechanism using the CALIDENA methodology. Results show WVC is subjected to a significant number of quality-related issues mainly associated with conformity assessment service (calibration, certification, inspection, and testing) and standards. Finally, the paper concludes with recommendations for NQI service improvement to improve the WVC.

Impact of Stakeholders Training on a Sustainable Community Development, Focusing on Wheat Value Chain: The Case of Ambo District, Ethiopia

Impact of Stakeholders Training on a Sustainable Community Development, Focusing on Wheat Value Chain: The Case of Ambo District, Ethiopia

Assessing the Rheological Properties of Durum Wheat Semolina: A Review.

Empiric rheology is considered a useful tool for assessing the technological quality of wheat. Over the decades, several tests have been adapted from common to durum wheat, and new approaches have been proposed to meet the needs of the players of the durum wheat value chain. Breeders are looking for reliable methods to test the functional quality of wheat lines at early stages, where there are limited amounts of sample; millers need fast and reliable methods for checking wheat quality right at the point of the receiving station; and pasta-makers are looking for suitable methods to predict end product quality. This review provides an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the rheological tests currently used to evaluate the quality of durum wheat semolina, with the emphasis on Europe. Moreover, the relationships among the parameters obtained from different rheological approaches are extrapolated from the literature and integrated with the data obtained from 74 samples of durum wheat semolina. Although numerous efforts have been made to propose rapid and reliable tests for semolina characterization, the ideal test has yet to be proposed, indicating that researchers and pasta companies need to focus on perfecting the way to assess the quality of durum wheat and pasta.

Food Losses and Wastage along the Wheat Value Chain in Egypt and Their Implications on Food and Energy Security, Natural Resources, and the Environment

Pushing yield frontiers of cereals and legumes is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in drylands. This paper argues and provides empirical evidence that food loss and wastage constitute a sizeable proportion of the total wheat supply in Egypt. By following the life cycle of food and using standard measurement protocols, we estimated the levels of food loss and wastage along the wheat value chain in Egypt and their socioeconomic, biophysical, and environmental implications. About 4.4 million tons (20.62% of total wheat supply from domestic production and imports in 2017/2018) is estimated to be lost or wasted in Egypt which is also associated with the wastage of about 4.79 billion m3 of water, and 74.72 million GJ of energy. This implies that if Egypt manages to eliminate, or considerably reduce, wheat-related losses and wastage, it will save enough food to feed 21 million more people from domestic production and hence reduce wheat imports by 37%, save 1.1 billion USD of much-needed foreign exchange, and reduce emissions of at least 260.84 million kg carbon dioxide-equivalent and 8.5 million kg of methane. Therefore, investment in reducing food loss and wastage can be an effective strategy to complement ongoing efforts to enhance food security through productivity enhancement in Egypt.

Market Imperfections within the European Wheat Value Chain: The Case of France and the United Kingdom

The focus of this paper is on the analysis of market imperfections in the French and U.K. wheat value chains. We used mark-up and mark-down models and stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the degree of market imperfections in two completely different wheat-to-bread chains for two stages/sectors—milling and baking. Our results reveal some degree of market imperfections within the input and output markets for both the milling and baking sectors in France and the United Kingdom. However, the abuse of bargaining power is especially pronounced in the input market for the second stage of wheat processing, particularly in the French baking sector. However, we did not observe the expected positive association between the degree of market imperfections and company size except for a group of middle, large, and very large companies within the millers’ input market. Small companies indicate considerably high values of “Lerner”/Lerner indices, suggesting a benefit from other sources of competitive advantage (such as quality, niche markets, etc.).

Value chain analysis of wheat in Duna district, Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia

Wheat is a source of food and income for Ethiopian farmers in general, and the Duna district in particular. Despite the district's high wheat production potential, a number of constraints impede the wheat sector's and value chain's development. This study, thus, analyzed the wheat value chain in Duna district, Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia. Descriptive statistics, marketing margin, and a multiple linear regression model were used to analyze data from 149 respondents. The result showed that the actors in the wheat value chain have a shaky relationship. According to the findings, flour wholesalers had the highest market margin (18.36%), followed by flour processors (17.70%). The estimated multiple linear regression result revealed that wheat supply is influenced by the quantity of wheat produced, household education level, farming experience, frequency of extension contact, and lagged market price. Furthermore, wheat producers identified climate variability and low wheat prices as the top two problems in wheat production and wheat marketing, respectively. Hence, the government and other concerned bodies should focus on productivity increasing technologies in the study area in order to boost productivity and thus increase wheat market supply. In addition, to solve the marketing problem, the promotion of value-added practices and the formation of wheat cooperatives are suggested.

Assessing Smallholder Farmer's Participation in the Wheat Value Chain in North-West Mt. Kenya

Wheat is the second most important carbohydrate staple in Kenya and is produced by both smallholder and large-scale farmers. Smallholders are the majority, but produce &amp;lt;20% of the total national production. Compared to large-scale farmers, they have been considered to be less efficient producers and thus fail to benefit fully from their participation in the wheat value chain. This study aims at establishing the value accruing to smallholder and large-scale farmers participating in wheat production in north-west Mt. Kenya. For comparative purposes and to explore the potential of smallholder farmers, a sample of 58 smallholder and seven large-scale farmers was selected for the study. We use budget analysis to determine the gross output, cost of production and gross margins attained by the smallholder and large-scale farmers. Further, an analysis of constraints to productivity is done to establish the factors hindering farmers from reaching high yield potential. Results of the study show that smallholder farmers obtain lower yields, have higher costs of production per bag of wheat and lower gross margins compared to large-scale farmers. High cost of inputs, low market prices, low bargaining power, high cost of machinery services, diseases and weeds were among factors excluding smallholder farmers from benefitting from their participation in the value chain. However, results also show that smallholder farmers can produce wheat profitably albeit with necessary support. Thus, interventions should consider these constraints and aim at improving smallholder farmers' horizontal and vertical integration in the value chain. We recommend continued investment in research and development on wheat, adoption of climate resilient agricultural practices, improvements in the fertilizer subsidy programme and creating or increasing participation in producer groups that will provide possibilities of increased bargaining power and reduction of costs through improved access to machinery services, markets and credit.

Assessment of the Wheat Value Chain Role in Food Security in Arsi Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

The study examined the role of wheat value chain in the food security in Arsi Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia. It uses both primary and secondary data collected through questionnaires, FGD, interview and desk review from a total of 336 randomly selected households. Data were analyzed using value chain mapping, percentage and cross-tabulations of frequency distribution. The result from the value chain analysis indicates the main actors in the study area include input suppliers, producers, brokers, wholesalers, processors, traders, and consumers, while the supporting actors are DAs, BoARD, cooperatives/unions, trade and industry office, and financial/credit institutions. Farmers receive a low-profit shares (23.81%) despite the fact that they are determined to produce quality wheat and bearing all the related risk of production. Farmers in the study area encounter marketing problem during harvesting seasons which accommodate the cost of production and create profit. Likewise, the well function of wheat value chain enhances the food security status of the poor in increasing their production and productivity, and generating income which increases their economic capacity. Therefore, the study recommends the government and other stakeholder should create effective and efficient market which benefit the farmers on one hand and strengthening the well function of value chain which increases the participation of the farmers in the chain.

Review Study on Current Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Production Status and Key Challenges for Potential Efficiency of Wheat Markets in Ethiopia

The main aim of this review study is to provide an overview of current wheat production status and the key challenges of future bread wheat marketing competence in Ethiopia. Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a prevailing crop in temperate countries and is being used as one of a human sustenance. It is also an important basic food crop in Ethiopia. The success of wheat production depends somewhat on its adaptability and high yield potential, and also based on the gluten protein fraction, which confers the visco-elastic properties that allows its dough to be processed into bread, pasta, noodles and other food products. Improving bread wheat production and productivity as well as facilitating its marketing access is therefore one of a key part of the economic growth strategies in the Ethiopian government’s food self-sufficiency policy programs. The government’s policy interventions that aimed at improving bread wheat production or agricultural production for that matter, however, require involvements beyond the farm lands at the entire bread wheat value chains. Both local production and import are the two key sources of wheat grain supply to the Ethiopian bread wheat value chain have shown a substantial increase since the mid-1990s. So far, a steady increase in domestic wheat consumption has resulted in rising bread wheat and product prices over the forgoing two decades. For instance, bread wheat grain, wheat flour as well as wheat bread prices have all being more than doubled between 2000 and 2020. Using a qualitative survey of selected bread wheat value chain actors and a review of existing literature, this study provides an overview of the bread wheat value chain, institutional and marketing arrangements, and trader behavior of bread wheat value chain actors in Ethiopia. The bread wheat value chain consists of multiple actors that include several small holder farmers and the Ethiopian grain trade enterprise at the upstream and urban and rural consumers at the other end. The study stresses the need for formulation of bread wheat market-enhancing policies, such as quality control and dispute settlement mechanisms as well as better access to market information, to improve bread wheat productivity as well as marketing efficiency.

Study of the microstructure of durum wheat endosperm using X-ray micro-computed tomography

Durum wheat grains are used for producing food, such as pasta or couscous. The grain mechanical properties which are linked to its internal micro-structure (i.e. endosperm porosity) are known to determine its ability to produce semolina during milling. The proportion of grains having porous endosperm in a batch appears therefore as a critical quality factor for the durum wheat value chain. Our objective was to investigate the ability of X-ray micro-tomography (μCT) method to describe the porous or vitreous counterpart structures in the endosperm of durum wheat grains. We selected two different durum wheat samples displaying vitreous or partially porous endosperms. The grains were analyzed using μCT at two pixel sizes (1 μm or 7 μm). The μCT data collected at 7 μm pixel size were used for qualitative classification of grains according to apparent distribution curve of the porosity parameters. Analysis of μCT images at 1 μm pixel size allowed us to propose pore size classification in the vitreous and porous parts of the endosperm in three durum wheat grain. Results are used to better describe the durum-wheat endosperm microstructure, but requires long scanning periods.

Value Chain Analysis of Wheat (&lt;i&gt;Triticum Aestivum&lt;/i&gt;) in Dembecha District, Ethiopia

This study aimed to analyze the value chain of wheat in Dembecha district of West Gojjam zone. A total of 130 farm households, 30 traders, 2 bakers, 1 processor, 4 cooperatives and 10 consumers were used to collect the data. Functional and institutional approach of value chain analysis showed input providers, producers, cooperatives, collectors, wholesalers, retailers, and processors were found to be important wheat value chain actors. Four firms concentration ratio (CR4) was found to be 39.78% and there were information asymmetry and observed barriers to enter into wheat market. Buying, selling and pricing strategies showed deviation of wheat market from competitive market norms. Analysis of marketing margins revealed that processors received the highest (39.72%) marketing margin and retailers received the least marketing margins (4.85%) from consumers’ price. Even if wheat in the study area deviate from competitive market norms as a result of oligopolistic market structure and conduct, profitability analysis of wheat market showed all market actors operated at profitable level. Supporting farmers and increase productivity through practical research, develop pie-growing mechanisms among actors, founding agro-processing firm, providing infrastructural facilities, designing advance way of disseminating market information, determining appropriate pricing strategies should be done to strength value chain development.