Successful farmer collective action to integrate food production into value chains

Food Chain ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Herbel ◽  
Nora Ourabah Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Value Chains

The Phantom of Upgrading in Agricultural Supply Chains

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Small Farmers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Social Upgrading

This book addresses the controversies surrounding smallholders’ opportunities for economic and social upgrading by joining global agricultural value chains (AVC). While international organizations encourage small farmers to become part of AVC, critics point out its risks. Unlike previous single case studies, researchers from three continents compared the influence of the characteristics of the crop (coffee, mango, rice), the end markets, and the national political economic contexts on the social and economic conditions for smallholders and agricultural workers. Their findings highlight the importance of collective action by smallholders and of a supportive state for economic and social upgrading. With contributions by Angela Dziedzim Akorsu, Do Quynh Chi; Francis Enu Kwesi, Daniel James Hawkins, Jakir Hossain, Khiddir Iddris, Clesio Marcelino de Jesus, Manish Kumar, Michele Lindner, Mubashir Mehdi, Rosa Maria Vieira Medeiros, Antonio Cesar Ortega, Thales Augusto Medeiros Penha, Bruno Perosa, Sérgio Schneider and Santosh Verma.

scholarly journals The Influence of Sunflower Commercialisation and Diversity on Women's Empowerment: The Case of Iramba and Mkalama Districts, Singida Region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Devotha B. Mosha ◽  
John Jeckoniah ◽  
Aida Isinika ◽  
Gideon Boniface
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Cash Crop ◽  
Cash Crops ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
And Control

There is a growing body of literature that argues that normally women derive little benefit from cash crops. Some of the barriers leading to women having less benefit from cash crop value chains include cultural norms and power differences in access to, and control over, resources among actors in value chains. It is also argued that women’s participation in different forms of collective action help women to increase benefits to them through their increased agency, hence enabling them to utilise existing and diverse options for their empowerment. This paper explores how women have benefited from their engagement in sunflower commercialisation and how culture has influenced changes in access to, and control over, resources, including land, for their empowerment.

scholarly journals Integrating Endemic Medicinal Plants into the Global Value Chains: The Ecological Degradation Challenges and  Opportunities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volenzo Tom ◽  
John Odiyo ◽  
Offoro Kimambo
Keyword(s):  
Medicinal Plants ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Medicinal Plant ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Plant Resources ◽  
Endemic Medicinal Plant

Though innovations for sustainable management of natural resources have emerged over time, the rising demand for nature based health solutions and integration of endemic flora into global value chains could have adverse impacts on ecosystems. The ecological risks in the exploitation of wild medicinal plant resources are exacerbated by a myriad of agrotechnological risks and challenges that highly constrain their domestication. Successful exploitation and commercialization of medicinal plants thus require a clear understanding of their demand and production systems or value chain analysis. Accordingly there is need for innovative approaches towards their integration into global value chains. Since quality and safety, traceability, certification, as well as, consumer tastes and preferences are critical drivers in purchasing decisions by global consumers, they are inadvertently exploited to weaken Indigenous knowledge (IK), undermine common property rights and entrench value chains that favour a few elite buyers. This tend to create pervasive incentives for overexploitation of medicinal plant resources and environmental degradation. Potential solution lies in the recognition of drivers of vulnerability to environmental degradation and the innovative use of policy bricolage, feedback loops and interactions between knowledge, power and agency on one hand, and collective action and property rights institutions on the other hand. We conceptualise a framework that can mediate a transformational agenda and enhance systematic understanding of sustainability lenses in endemic medicinal plant resources value chains. This could in turn strengthen IK, enhance collective action  and promote participation of local actors with positive impact on the utilisation and integration of endemic medicinal plant resources into global value chains.

scholarly journals Short Value Chains in Food Production: The Role of Spatial Proximity for Economic and Land Use Dynamics

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 979
Author(s):  
Dominik Bertram ◽  
Tobias Chilla ◽  
Carola Wilhelm
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Regional Food ◽  
Land Use Dynamics

Agricultural land demand tends to be in weak condition vis-à-vis settlement development, transport infrastructure and industry expansion. At the same time, the awareness and demand of consumers for regional food is constantly rising, in particular in urban regions. The resulting challenge is that high demand for regional food is concentrated at places where land for food production tends to be particularly under pressure. Against this background, our article reflects on the extent to which regional food supply chains support the status of agricultural demand in the competition for land. The main aim of our paper is to understand the role of proximity between the different stages of value creation, including cultivation, production (manual or industrial) and trade (retail, direct marketing). Our empirical study on the example of three products in Bavaria (Germany) shows that short distances within food value chains support the agricultural condition in land use dynamics (beer, sweet cherry, asparagus). The analyses are based on official and internal statistics as well as expert interviewing. This mixed-methods approach results in value-creation mappings and provides spatial differentiation of the economic process. Proximity between at least two stages of value creation plays an important role to explain the economic trends and land use dynamic. These findings are rooted in arguments of efficiency, tacit knowledge, networks, as well as product reputation. However, the role of proximity does not automatically play a role but has to be stabilized by strategic measures such as product innovation and marketing measures.

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

Agriculture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Ridoutt ◽  
Jessica R. Bogard ◽  
Kanar Dizyee ◽  
Lilly Lim-Camacho ◽  
Shalander Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Diet Quality ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Impact Pathways ◽  
Nutritious Food ◽  
Entry Points

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.

The Oxford Handbook of Food, Water and Society

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Current Management ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Food Value

Society’s greatest use of water is in food production; a fact that puts farmers centre stage in global environmental management. Current management of food value chains, however, is not well set up to enable farmers to undertake their dual role of feeding a growing population and stewarding natural resources. This book considers the interconnected issues of real water in the environment and “virtual water” in food value chains and investigates how society influences both fields. This perspective draws out considerable challenges for food security and for environmental stewardship in the context of ongoing global change. The book also discusses these issues by region and with global overviews of selected commodities. Innovation relevant to the kind of change needed for the current food system to meet future challenges is reviewed in light of the findings of the regional and thematic analysis.

Value chains in renewable and sustainable food systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn E. Swisher ◽  
Jorge Ruiz-Menjivar ◽  
Rosalie Koenig
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
The Body ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Sustainable Food Systems ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Food Trade ◽  
Body Of Knowledge

AbstractGlobalization of food trade in agricultural commodities is in some senses the antithesis of key concepts of sustainable agriculture. Global trade in food products distances the depletion of resources and environmental impacts of food production from the economic and social processes that drive consumption and increases the global risks from introduction of species that become pests. However, both supply and market value chains have emerged as major sub-systems in the larger global agro-food trade system that exert enormous importance over the potential for change in agricultural production at the farm level. This special issue presents studies of seven value chains that exhibit the breadth of research about value chains and their potential contributions to sustainable agriculture. They address value chains at different scales and dealing in various products. These studies contribute to the body of knowledge with a focus on lesser researched regions and products. Most important, they demonstrate the potential for value chains to enhance agricultural sustainability for rural populations and reduce food insecurity and inequities.

Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
PETER M. SANCHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Parish Priest ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Resource Mobilisation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.

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