Comparing stakeholder views for mutual acceptable food value chain upgrading strategies in Tanzania

Abstract

The number of rural poor has been reported to rise in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) while per capita food consumption in the region is on the decline and food insecurity has been much embedded. Thus, knowing upgrading strategies (UPS) to be used in making a living and would have great chance of benefiting majority hence provide solutions to poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. This paper assesses and compares the views of local stakeholders and agricultural experts in terms of prioritizing food securing UPS along food value chains (FVC). Data and information have been collected in a highly participatory process so as to develop an approach and experience in Tanzania regions to support poor people in rural areas to upgrade their position in viable FVC. Local stakeholders' definition of food security rely on food availability component, hence this paper centers on two major FVC components such as natural resources and crop production for maize and millet subsectors in Morogoro and Dodoma regions of Tanzania, respectively. Given natural resources, agricultural experts favor soil improving upgrading strategies in Morogoro and water management in Dodoma, whereby, local stakeholders in both regions prefer farm inputs related UPS for improving soil fertility (seed varieties improvement and fertilizer use). There is no significant mismatch of views for production component apart from differences on ranks. Stakeholders in both regions prefer use of improved crop varieties, pests and diseases control and new livestock management including having village land use planning. It is recommended that satisfactory participation of local stakeholders should be considered during testing stage of FVC upgrading strategies, including packing these innovations to suit local conditions and finally empower all potential actors for successful dissemination and outreach.

Value Chain Upgrading: Evidence From Smoked Fish Agribusiness in Central Java

“…Cooperation with the government is also needed in creating value chain upgrading such as providing assistance in production equipment, providing technology, and providing training. This is in line with previous research (Larsen, 2016;Mwinuka et al, 2015;Rahmatin et al, 2019;Wentink et al, 2017) that government intervention through programs and policies as well as collaboration with the private sector has in fact proven to play a role in developing and strengthening value chain.…”

Multi-Disciplinary North-South Collaboration in Participatory Action Research on Food Value Chains: a German-Tanzanian Case Study on Perceptions, Experiences and Challenges

“…(2) Inventorying FVC constraints and strategies: the priority commodities and FVC constraints on rural farmers at four case study sites (CSSs) were inventoried (Mwinuka et al 2015).…”

“…Each group presented the results to the other participants, and 2-3 UPSs per FVC component were prioritized in a secret voting by groups of 9-13 representative stakeholders for final field implementation in all four CSSs. The scientists accepted a number of additional UPSs for implementation and merged a few UPSs, attaining 6-7 of the most promising UPSs per CSS, and overall, 10 UPSs were selected (Mwinuka et al 2015).…”

“…Did, for instance, the natural and social scientists truly work together and produce joint results? The answer is "yes, in most cases", for instance, with activities such as joint research planning to conduct and produce research results, as was presented by Mwinuka et al (2015) and Schindler et al (2016). However, with increasing complexity, there was also a decreasing level of successful North-South collaboration.…”