407
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
B. R. Singh et al. (eds.), Climate Impacts on Agricultural and Natural Resource
Sustainability in Africa, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37537-9_24
Integrating Smallholder Farmers
to Commodity Value Chains in SubSaharan Africa: Challenges, Prospects
and Policy Issues
Fredy Timothy Mlyavidoga Kilima and Lusato Revocatus Kurwijila
Abstract The participation of smallholder farmers in commodity value chains in
sub-Saharan Africa has generally been low. Commodity and location-specific factors in favour of and against farmers’ participation in agricultural value chains have
been documented in contemporary literature. However, the analysis of farmers’
prospects to integrate into such value chains has predominantly focused on specific
commodities or groups of related commodities, leading to recommendations that
apply to studied commodities only. There is a need to compare and contrast farmers’
prospects to integrate into different agricultural commodities and generate comprehensive lessons on what works and under what circumstances. This chapter has
adopted a multi-commodity approach to assess such prospects for smallholder dairy
and vegetable farmers in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The approach is
deemed appropriate because it identifies challenges and reveals opportunities for a
wider group of actors within the value chains. The main objective is to identify
several productivity, quality and market linkage-enhancing interventions that can
increase farmers’ participation in value chains and their incomes.
1 Introduction
1.1 The Sub-Saharan Africa Context
Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) comprises predominantly smallholder
farming (Staatz et al. 2007; Wiggins 2009), which is highly diversified to allow farmers meet basic demands for food and diversify their income portfolios (IFAD 2010).
F. T. M. Kilima (*)
Moshi Co-operative University, Moshi, Tanzania
e-mail: ftmkilima@gmail.com
L. R. Kurwijila
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
e-mail: kurwiji@sua.ac.tz
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
B. R. Singh et al. (eds.), Climate Impacts on Agricultural and Natural Resource
Sustainability in Africa, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37537-9_24
Integrating Smallholder Farmers
to Commodity Value Chains in SubSaharan Africa: Challenges, Prospects
and Policy Issues
Fredy Timothy Mlyavidoga Kilima and Lusato Revocatus Kurwijila
Abstract The participation of smallholder farmers in commodity value chains in
sub-Saharan Africa has generally been low. Commodity and location-specific factors in favour of and against farmers’ participation in agricultural value chains have
been documented in contemporary literature. However, the analysis of farmers’
prospects to integrate into such value chains has predominantly focused on specific
commodities or groups of related commodities, leading to recommendations that
apply to studied commodities only. There is a need to compare and contrast farmers’
prospects to integrate into different agricultural commodities and generate comprehensive lessons on what works and under what circumstances. This chapter has
adopted a multi-commodity approach to assess such prospects for smallholder dairy
and vegetable farmers in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The approach is
deemed appropriate because it identifies challenges and reveals opportunities for a
wider group of actors within the value chains. The main objective is to identify
several productivity, quality and market linkage-enhancing interventions that can
increase farmers’ participation in value chains and their incomes.
1 Introduction
1.1 The Sub-Saharan Africa Context
Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) comprises predominantly smallholder
farming (Staatz et al. 2007; Wiggins 2009), which is highly diversified to allow farmers meet basic demands for food and diversify their income portfolios (IFAD 2010).
F. T. M. Kilima (*)
Moshi Co-operative University, Moshi, Tanzania
e-mail: ftmkilima@gmail.com
L. R. Kurwijila
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
e-mail: kurwiji@sua.ac.tz