The promotion of amaranth value chains for livelihood enhancement in East Africa: A systems modelling approach

Abstract

This paper conducts ex-ante impact assessments for policy interventions to promote amaranth value chains in Tanzania and Kenya. Amaranth is an underdeveloped, drought-resistant, and nutrition-rich crop used for human food, animal fodder, and ornamental purposes. Promoting amaranth value chains is a difficult task, given that amaranth is not a well-established commodity and has limited market outlets in the developing world at present. This paper provides a framework within which conduct scenario analysis of ways to promote amaranth value chains using system dynamics (SD). We constructed an integrated amaranth production and market model to evaluate the impact of producer adoption of improved production technologies (improved seed varieties), and changes in demand for amaranth products, on producer profits and planting behaviour. The results of our model show that the profitably upgrading and commercialising of amaranth value chains require multifaceted and chain-level interventions that improve supply- and demand-side conditions. Interventions that target only the supply side serve to increase amaranth production, but generate minor economic gain for producers.

The World Vegetable Center Amaranthus germplasm collection: Core collection development and evaluation of agronomic and nutritional traits

“…Amaranth grain is also promoted as functional food (Martinez‐Lopez et al., 2020), used as a no‐gluten alternative to cereals in bakeries (Gebreil et al., 2020), for beverages (Manassero et al., 2020) including beer (Yang & Gao, 2020), and to extract a high quality oil for cosmetics (Huang et al., 2009) and food applications (Becker, 2018), to mention just a few current uses. Vegetable amaranth is increasingly popular in Asia and Africa, but vegetable amaranth marketing faces limitations in Africa that restrict the economic benefits for farmers (Dizyee et al., 2020). Dual‐use cultivars for harvesting leaves multiple times during the growing season and for a final grain harvest could contribute to satisfy the rising demand for amaranth grain and leaf while allowing farmers to generate income with two products instead of one (Dinssa et al., 2018).…”

The utilization of amaranthus leaf powder to supplement ujeqe (steamed bread) wheat flour for the alleviation of food and nutrition insecurity in Empangeni South Africa.

“…There is less attention on 'who' takes responsibility for 'what' because of the lack of services of the agricultural extension and agricultural credit of smallholder farmers of Amaranthus, and there is a lack of storage facilities which is a constraint militating against the marketing of 88 Amaranthus along the chain. Dizyee et al, 2020;. This in turn forces traders to buy Amaranthus in small quantities that can only be sold in a day or just a few days.…”