CGIAR Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/117905

Part of the CGIAR Action Area on Systems Transformation

Primary CGIAR impact area: Nutrition, health and food security

https://www.cgiar.org/initiative/29-rethinking-food-markets-and-value-chains-for-inclusion-and-sustainability/

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 234

How inclusive are smallholder farmers’ access to Digital Agricultural Platforms? Lessons from the EzyAgric Digital Platform in Uganda
(Preprint, 2024) Ajambo, Susan; Kikulwe, Enoch; Birachi, Eliud; Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng
This study investigates the barriers to accessing digital agricultural platforms in Uganda, focusing on EzyAgric. Using a cross-sectional qualitative design, we analysed 29 scripts from focus groups, interviews, and key informants. The Rapid Inclusivity Assessment tool identified proto-personas at risk of digital exclusion, while the Digital Divide Framework provided a theoretical basis. Three main personas emerged: tech-savvy youth (low-risk), middle-income farmers (medium-risk), and older subsistence farmers (high-risk). Key barriers include financial constraints, limited digital literacy, a lack of trust, and cultural norms. Women face additional challenges, such as financial dependency and time constraints, while elderly farmers struggle with unfamiliarity with and preference for traditional methods. Recommendations include improving the infrastructure, providing targeted digital literacy training, designing user-friendly interfaces, building trust, and considering cultural norms. The study emphasises holistic, intersectional approaches and public-private partnerships to promote equitable access to digital agricultural platforms.
Pathways to resilient dryland food systems in Africa: Strategic and tactical choices for accelerated impacts
(Report, 2024) Marenya, Paswel P.; Narmandakh, Davaatseren; Kirui, Leonard; Odhong, Jonathan A.; Sanni Abdulrahman; Aboudoulaye, Soule B.; Adam, Mamadou; Alex, Gerald; Belko, Marème N.; Bett, Charles; Dembele, Bandiougou; Derik, Sakatali P.; De Pee, Eric; Diatta, Cyril; Faye, Ndeye F.; Gichuru, Lilian; Kone, Bouréma; Kazombo, Samson F.M.; Kisilu, Rachael; Mchau, Devotha; Martey, Edward; Mbulwe, Lloyd; Ndubi, Jerika M.; Templer, Noel A.; Ouédraogo, Nofou; Opie, Hellen; Puozaa, Doris K.; Reoungel, Djinodji; Salegua, Venancio; Sawadogo-Compaoré, Eveline; Sime, Mekonnen; Zemedu, Lemma
Africa’s drylands form vital food systems, supporting a significant portion of its population and agricultural activity. However, they face persistent challenges with low productivity, limited market integration, and acute vulnerability to climate shocks. These issues contribute to structural poverty and high rates of undernourishment, highlighting the need for investments to improve rural incomes, enhance resilience, and foster economic growth.
From awareness to action: How EzyAgric's digital platform boosted farmer engagement and tackled counterfeit inputs
(Blog Post, 2024-12-24) Ajambo, Susan; Kikulwe, Enoch; Birachi, Eliud; Ogutu, Sylvester; Stewart, Ategeka
Digital platforms revolutionize agriculture by resolving supply chain inefficiencies, improving agronomic information dissemination and promoting inclusivity. They provide real-time e-extension and input availability, enabling precise decision-making and boosting productivity. Additionally, these platforms enhance transparency, traceability and profitability by directly linking farmers with input and output markets, especially in fragmented agricultural systems.
Cointegration analysis of sesame prices in Ethiopian commodity exchange warehouses
(Report, 2024-12-24) Tazeze, Aemro; Kassie, Girma T.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Worku, Yonas; Asnake, Woinishet; Minot, Nicholas
This study examines the cointegration of sesame market prices in eight Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) warehouses and its implications for improving the functioning of sesame markets. We analyzed 489 weekly market price data points for each of the eight ECX warehouses, covering the period from end of 2014 to mid-2024. We estimate the Multivariate Vector Error Correction Model (ECM) to analyze short- and long-term spatial price adjustments across warehouses. Of the eight warehouses, six showed significant spatial integration. The VECM results showed effective price transmission and strong short- and longterm market relationships. Short-term dynamics particularly revealed complex interactions. These findings highlight the varying impacts of price fluctuations between warehouses and the need to understand these interactions for better strategic decision making, resource allocation, and pricing strategy refinement. Furthermore, accelerating the speed of price pass through is vital to improve the livelihoods of sesame farmers in Ethiopia.
How helpful are the “hidden costs of food systems” numbers?
(Journal Article, 2025-02) Brooks, Jonathan; Diaz-Bonilla, Eugenio
Innovations in low-income country food systems
(Report, 2024-12-31) Michelson, Hope C.
The food sector is a critical area of employment and economic activity in most low-income countries, especially for the rural poor, providing incomes and sustenance, employment and growth. In many low and middle-income countries, two configurations, formal and informal, overlap in economically significant grey areas. This overlap between the formal and informal is particularly common and therefore relevant to research and policy in the food sector of low-income countries. This paper is concerned with identifying innovations in the informal sector of food systems in low-income countries, in particular innovations that improve participation and circumstances for those at the bottom: farmers, small traders. This focus requires some distinction between formal and informal; this distinction will abstract away from a lot of the overlap and the dynamism of the sector. We organize the definition of formal and informal primarily around the degree of compliance with official regulatory frameworks and financial systems, acknowledging that this definition has some limitations. For example, the nature of activities and actors in the informal sector—such as smaller firm size or transaction size—can in some cases mean that their operations are not subject to the regulations that apply to larger firms. Formality, in such economies and under such a definition, is then tightly correlated not just with regulatory compliance but also the economic scale of the operations (which may be endogenously determined as a means of avoiding regulation). While this framework helps to clarify the boundaries of what is considered formal or informal, is important to recognize that these boundaries can be fluid, and in many contexts, the distinction may not fully capture the nuanced realities of economic activity
Training of farmers to raise awareness and usage of EzyAgric’s digital innovation bundles
(Report, 2024-06-01) Ategeka, Stewart; Luyinda, William B.; Arach, Zilla M.; Ogutu, Sylvester; Ajambo, Susan; Birachi, Eliud A.; Kikulwe, Enoch M.
This technical report presents outcomes of EzyAgric’s digital innovation awareness raising campaigns that aimed to enhance awareness and usage of EzyAgric’s digital innovation bundles among farmers and agro-inputs merchants in Luwero, Nakaseke, and Mityana districts. The objectives included fostering knowledge about EzyAgric's digital products and services, promoting quality assurance of agro-inputs, training on the safe use of agro- chemicals and climate-smart agriculture. Overall, 293 farmers were engaged, including 246 target farmers, and 47 non-target farmers. The training emphasized hands-on activities and practical demonstrations of the EzyAgric digital innovations, actual delivery of agricultural products ordered by the merchants. Key topics covered included agro-input requirements for coffee, maize, banana, tomatoes, and climate smart agriculture practices. The initiative saw a 32% increase in participation due to localized training sessions and the involvement of community leaders. Key achievements include 50 new users onboarded on the EzyAgric App, 246 farmers enrolled on EzyAgric’s USSD platform, and some agro-input sales to the newly onboarded merchants. Major challenges were low smartphone penetration, low digital proficiency among the target farmers, and lack of for- mal farmer organization structures. The next steps include continuous farmer engagement, demand aggregation, and timely supply of quality inputs to farmers and agro-input merchants. The report recommends the utilization of farmer organization structures and localized group training as a scalable approach in awareness raising campaigns on the adoption of digital innovations.
An evaluation of farmers' digital literacy and awareness on the adoption and implementation of bundled digital innovations in Uganda
(Report, 2024-12-01) Ogutu, Sylvester; Kikulwe, Enoch; Ajambo, Susan; Ategeka, Stewart; Birachi, Eliud
Global agri-food systems face numerous challenges, including the adverse effects of climate change, low productivity, limited adoption of technologies, and restricted access to input and output markets. These constraints contribute to increased food insecurity, decreased income from agriculture, and stagnated growth rates in many agrarian economies. Digitizing the agriculture sector presents a sustainable solution to these challenges by providing critical information that supports optimal decision-making, enhancing efficiency and productivity. However, the widespread adoption of digital innovations in this sector is hindered by low awareness of existing technologies, limited digital literacy, and prevailing social norms and power dynamics affecting various population segments, particularly women and youth. To overcome these barriers, campaigns aimed at improving digital literacy and raising awareness is essential for promoting the uptake and use of digital innovations. Despite the importance of these initiatives, studies that quantify the impact of such interventions on the adoption and use of bundled digital innovations remain limited. This evaluation report, first, examines the effects of awareness creation and digital literacy trainings on the adoption of bundled digital innovations, differentiated by gender. Second, it evaluates the impact of digital literacy training on input use (improved seeds, fertilizer, agrochemicals (fungicides and herbicides) and mechanization), crop yields (for at least two major annual crops in the study area: maize and beans and two cash crops (banana and coffee), and income, all categorized by gender and other socio-economic characteristics. Data for this study were obtained from a randomized controlled trial (RCT), collected over two waves: a baseline conducted in September 2023 and a follow-up in September 2024. The treatment group comprised 253 households from three districts in Uganda, who received digital literacy training along with basic agronomic training as part of the intervention. In contrast, the control group consisted of 284 households from two districts. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were employed since the covariates were balanced between the treatment and control groups at both the baseline and follow-up stages. ANCOVA was also utilized for validation purposes, incorporating pre-treatment variables to enhance model estimates. The results indicate an attrition rate of 4.5%, with no significant differences observed across the various explanatory variables. This suggests that attrition is nonsystematic. The balance test scores show no evidence of differences in covariates between the treatment and control groups, which supports the use of OLS regression for empirical estimation. The intervention led to a significant increase in the uptake of improved seeds, as well as a positive trend of gross revenues from agricultural production and increased consumption expenditures on both food and non-food items. This study suggests that creating awareness and providing digital literacy training can enhance the adoption of productivity-enhancing inputs, such as improved seeds. Additionally, it is essential to adopt an inclusive, gender-sensitive approach to ensure that awareness and training campaigns have a wider impact.
Employment impacts of agrifood system innovations and policies: A review of the evidence
(Working Paper, 2024-12-31) Berdegué, Julio A.; Trivelli, Carolina; Vos, Rob
The food sector constitutes the largest global source of employment, supporting the livelihoods of most of the world’s poor and vulnerable populations. This article provides an extensive review of the available evidence of the employment effects of innovations and policy interventions in agrifood systems and value chains in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review was guided by a two-part hypothesis: (1) food systems currently underperform in terms of their potential for generating decent jobs and income opportunities, and (2) this gap is only growing as expanding food markets and existing agrifood supply chain business models skew gains to the disadvantage of smallholders, agrifood small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and food sector workers.
Reinforcing knowledge and business relationships among associated bean producers in Honduras: Endline Report (Preliminary result)
(Working Paper, 2024-12) Reyes, Byron; Espada, Andres; Ceballos Sierra, Federico; Colindres, Mirian; Wiegel, Jennifer
Perspectivas sobre el frijol común en Centroamérica: Tendencias en la producción, distribución y consumo
(Report, 2024-12) Achicanoy, Viviana; Reyes, Byron; Wiegel, Jennifer
La iniciativa Transformando Mercados estudia, entre otros temas, innovaciones que contribuyen a mejor la calidad del grano de frijol producido, el fortalecimiento de conocimientos técnicos de los productores, y el acceso a mercados diferenciados, los cuales demandan un grano de calidad y tienen el potencial de proveer mejores ingresos para los productores. Para complementar este trabajo, la iniciativa hizo un análisis regional incluyendo cinco países centroamericanos, sobre la producción, distribución (comercialización), y consumo del frijol. En este informe se presentan los resultados preliminares del análisis regional realizado. El objetivo principal de este estudio es proveer un análisis situacional de las dinámicas del sector de frijol en la región centroamericana, desde las tres perspectivas (ejes) mencionadas. Esto con el fin de proveer un marco para investigaciones futuras más profundas sobre la interrelación de las dinámicas regionales entre los países que comercializan frijol entre sí.
Accelerating quality upgrading in Ugandan dairy value chains
(Blog Post, 2024-12-19) Van Campenhout, Bjorn
Uganda’s dairy sector has grown significantly over the past two decades, yet challenges in milk quality continue to hinder its potential. A recent study by Richard Ariong and colleagues explores interventions to address these challenges through field experiments targeting Milk Collection Centers (MCCs) and farmers that deliver to these MCCs. The findings provide valuable insights on quality upgrading in value chains in developing countries.
Solar drying technology for post-harvest loss management of horticulture products: Findings from baseline survey in Nigeria
(Report, 2024-12-31) Balana, Bedru; Popoola, Olufemi; Yamauchi, Futoshi; Olanipekun, Caleb; Totin, Edmond; Salaudeen, Kamaldeen Oladimeji; Muhammad, Aminu; Shi, Weilun; Liu, Yanyan
Creating a sustainable food system requires addressing the critical challenges of food waste and loss. This is particularly crucial for small-scale farmers who supply local markets but lack access to modern preservation technologies, leading to significant product losses between harvesting and selling. Research indicates that in low-and middle-income countries, approximately 38 percent of harvested perishable agricultural goods are lost before consumption. Globally, about 22 percent of fruits and vegetables are lost in the supply chain before reaching retailers (FAO, 2019). These postharvest losses have significant impacts to low economic return and household food and nutrition security. Post-harvest losses also contribute significantly to environmental concerns, accounting for roughly 8 percent of yearly global greenhouse gas emissions. Among all food categories, fruits and vegetables experience the highest losses by weight.
Global shocks to fertilizer markets: Impacts on prices, demand and farm profitability
(Journal Article, 2025-05) Vos, Rob; Glauber, Joseph W.; Hebebrand, Charlotte; Rice, Brendan
During 2021–2022, spiking fertilizer prices raised fears that fertilizer application would drop around the world, leading to lower crop production, higher food prices, and greater food insecurity. Even writing mid-2024, a paucity of data impedes a full assessment of how the underlying global market shocks may have affected farmers and food production around the world. Using proxy indicators for fertilizer demand and farm profitability, we find that despite the steep increase in input costs, global demand for fertilizer fell only modestly during the 2022–2023 crop cycle, suggesting many (commercial) farmers were able and willing to absorb increased input costs in the context of generally good harvest prospects and, at the time, high crop prices. However, we also find the fertilizer price spikes have not been felt equally, with many farmers in Africa estimated to have been affected more adversely, even though with varied impacts also amongst those farmers.
Measuring employment and job quality in agrifood systems: A comprehensive approach
(Working Paper, 2024-12-31) Corong, Erwin; Gautam, Madhur; Martin, Will; Vos, Rob
As the agricultural transformation associated with economic development proceeds, the economic fulcrum of the agrifood system moves from on-farm, or primary, production activities to activities that are increasingly non-farm sector based, such as agro-processing, food services, wholesale and retail trade, etc. Therefore, the traditional measures of farm employment and value-addition (or GDP) come to represent a smaller and smaller share of the total contribution of the agrifood system. Better quantification is important not only to appreciate the transformation within the agrifood system with economic development, but also to inform better policies and strategies to create more and better-quality jobs and accelerate structural transformation in developing economies. There are two broad approaches to measuring the size of the agrifood sector—tracking activity in agrifood sectors; and exploiting the full structure of the economy to assess the direct and indirect employment required to meet final demand for agrifood products. Both approaches are used in an analysis based on the global GTAP database and their results compared. The findings suggest that the final demand approach provides a more comprehensive assessment of the economic activities needed to meet final demand, with agrifood sector accounting for a much larger share of GDP, and the broader agrifood sector generating more and better-quality skilled jobs for both male and female workers. Another key aspect of the relationship is the resources needed to produce non-food products such as biofuels, clothing and leather products that rely on agricultural inputs. Including the resources needed to produce non-food agrifood outputs substantially increases the importance of the agrifood sector in overall activity and employment.
Typologies of women in supply chains to guide gender equity actions: The case of Volcafe in El Paraíso
(Report, 2024-03) Soto, Fernanda; González, Silvia; Wiegel, Jennifer
This study is a collaboration between the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Volcafe and Swisscontact in the framework of the Gender Equity and Rethinking Food Markets initiatives, both supported by donors from the CGIAR Trust Fund. This study constructed a typology of women involved in Volcafe's coffee value chain based on their role in it, their relationship with the company and their sociocultural position. This analysis makes it possible to identify different groups of women to guide targeted interventions that address the different challenges they face. Empowering women in this chain is key not only to improving their well-being, but also to ensuring the sustainability and productivity of the sector. By implementing strategies based on this typology, Volcafe and Swisscontact have the opportunity to lead a significant shift towards gender equality in coffee farming.
Does labelling differentiate products and create price premiums? The case of tomatoes from northeast Nigeria
(Report, 2024-12-31) Yamauchi, Futoshi; Dauda, Bawa; Balana, Bedru; Edeh, Hyacinth; Shi, Weilun
This note describes a labelling experiment introduced to crates of tomatoes cool transported from the northeast region of Nigeria to Lagos or Port Harcourt. A label was attached to a random sample of crates to ensure that the quality of tomatoes is orthogonal to the labels and the destination market was not informed of the experiment. The label contained the information on (a) the project (IFPRI), (b) the transportation method (cool transportation), and (c) the origin of tomatoes (Jos or Gombe), as shown below. The experiment was conducted in the first rounds from Jos and Gombe (Lagos), and the fifth round from Jos (Port Harcourt). As expected, the labeled crates were priced higher than the unlabeled crates. About 9 to 33% of the sale price is attributed to improved information on the quality of tomatoes via the labels.
Impacts of cool transportation in Nigeria: Midpoint analysis
(Report, 2024-12-26) Yamauchi, Futoshi; Dauda, Bawa; Balana, Bedru; Edeh, Hyacinth; Shi, Weilun
A randomized controlled trial was introduced to see impacts of cool transportation that connects three vegetable markets in northeast and two large demand centers in southern regions of Nigeria. This note summarizes the findings from the midpoint analysis. First, the impact of cool transportation is large and statistically significant. Sales price, revenue and profit significantly increase for marketers. Second, impacts on sales price are quantitatively large, and a larger portion of sales price increase is attributed to refrigeration, that is, quality preservation through cooling. About 70% of the increase comes from cooling; only 30% from transportation. Third, impacts on revenue and profit, relative to non-cool transportation, are also quantitatively large. In particular, the analysis shows a large proportional increase in profit.
Financial access of midstream agricultural firms in Africa: Evidence from the LSMS‐ISA and World Bank Enterprise Surveys
(Journal Article, 2024-12) Ambler, Kate; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Pulido, Cristhian
We use data from the Living Standards Measurement Study—Integrated Surveys on Agriculture and the World Bank Enterprise Survey from seven African countries, to identify agricultural midstream firms and assess their access to credit, comparing them to nonagricultural midstream firms. We find that the agricultural midstream firms are larger and more productive, and are less likely to report barriers to accessing credit, although overall access levels remain low. These findings help build our understanding about the financial needs of micro-, small-, and medium-size enterprises in the agricultural midstream and suggest that more targeted data collection could further this research agenda.
Options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and food systems
(Working Paper, 2024-12-31) Martin, Will; Vos, Rob
Food systems generate about one third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Without reducing them, it will not be possible to stabilize the climate and keep the increase in global temperature below 1.5oC from pre industrial levels. About 50 percent of agricultural emissions (in CO2eq) comes from methane, a super potent GHG, mostly from livestock production and rice cultivation. We consider six broad approaches to emission reduction from agriculture—emission taxes, repurposing of farm subsidies, regulations, investing in green innovations, carbon credits, and demand-side interventions. We find that not only carbon taxes on agricultural production, but also rearranging agricultural subsidies will have only small impacts in terms of improving human and planetary health. Regulatory approaches, including conditionality and payment for environmental services (PES) can be counterproductive if they lower yields and require expansion of agricultural land use. Instead, we find that investing more in R&D for sustainable intensification of agriculture focused on productivity enhancing innovations have strong potential to generate major efficiency gains, drastic reductions in emissions and improved food security. Demand interventions designed to contribute both to environmental goals and improvements in health outcomes can play a supporting role. Since multiple sustainable development goals are to be achieved, no single instrument by itself will be effective. Instead, multiple policy instruments will need to be bundled and designed to create synergies and address trade-offs.

Browse

Recent Submissions