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• (Article) Are ceramic water filters effective in preventing diarrhoea and acute malnutrition among under-five children in Sudan?

  01.07.2020
  Access to safe drinking-water at home is essential during the outpatient treatment of children with acute malnutrition due to their increased vulnerability to infections and disease. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ceramic water filters with safe storage in preventing diarrhoea and acute malnutrition among under-five children in Kassala state, Sudan. It was designed as an open-label randomized controlled trial, comparing two study groups. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews and direct observations, then processed and analysed using Epi Info 7.2.0.1. Use of water filters is a potential predictor of number of diarrhoea episodes per child (P < 0.001). The intervention group had a lower diarrhoea occurrence (P < 0.001), better monthly average weight gain (P = 0.012) and average mid-upper arm circumference increase (P = 0.001), and lower prevalence of acute malnutrition at the end of the study (P = 0.001) compared with the control group. Ceramic water filters with safe storage can be effective in preventing diarrhoea and acute malnutrition, and beneficial to children admitted to Community Management of Acute Malnutrition programmes in Kassala state. More research is needed to understand the pathways to achieving these outcomes. Other WASH interventions may be needed to interrupt the primary vectors of diarrhoea disease transmission in this setting.

• (Article) Guest Editorial: Special issue on Fair Trade and the Sustainable Development Goals

  01.01.2020
  This special edition of Food Chain focuses on Fair Trade and its relevance for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With its emphasis on producer empowerment, living wages, fair pricing, and long-term partnerships, linked to socially focused businesses and supply chains, the Fair Trade movement aims to transform both production and consumption and contribute to wider systemic change that supports sustainable livelihoods. We refer to Fair Trade (two words) as a broad range of organizations and campaigning networks, including Fairtrade (one word) certification, social enterprises, and cooperatives that espouse Fair Trade principles and support the International Fair Trade Charter (2018).

• (Article) Towards a collaborative approach between practitioners and academics: insights from an academic–Fairtrade collaboration

  01.01.2020
  Partnership approaches have been identified as crucial for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. In the context of an emerging literature on cross-sector partnerships, and more specifically reflections on how academic institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) create effective and mutually beneficial research collaborations, this paper draws on the experiences of a particular partnership between academic researchers and a Fair Trade organization partnership to contribute to building an understanding of how collaborative research can be achieved more effectively. A set of collaborative outputs resulted from the experience, including best practices for engagement and a training tool. It has contributed to changes in some of Fairtrade International’s ways of working with researchers. We found that we had more in common than what divided us in terms of skills and attitudes to knowledge, which is an important factor in the success of our relationship. Rooted in reflective practice, our project highlights the importance of trust and relationship building but also recognition of formal agreements and institutional structures to sustain the relationship.

• (Article) When Fairtrade is not enough: coffee cooperative development and the role of certification systems

  01.01.2020
  Coffee cooperatives employ certification systems, in part, to structure their relations with growers and buyers, and generate income for business operations and investments. In Central America, development agencies have targeted certified coffee cooperatives for support, based on the assumption that cooperatives are uniquely positioned to deliver benefits to poor coffee farmers. Research on certification systems has focused on the benefits obtained by smallholders from participation in a single system, often Fairtrade. This research examines cooperatives and how they engage with certification systems and the implications of this engagement for building their business. Data was collected in 2018 from four cooperatives in Nicaragua and Honduras. Fairtrade certification and related coffee sales formed the bedrock of their business strategy, but Fairtrade alone was insufficient to sustain operations, even when combined with organic certification, due to insufficient demand. Additional systems, such as UTZ Certified, C.A.F.E. Practices, and Rainforest Alliance were employed. These additional systems allowed cooperatives to sell excess coffee on relatively favourable terms – coffee which otherwise would have been sold as non-certified coffee. Results suggest that engagement in multiple certification systems is critical for sustaining cooperatives in the region, but they also dampen expectations that certification systems can provide a framework for driving long-term systemic change.

• (Article) Campaign spaces for sustainable development: a power analysis of the Fairtrade Town Campaign in the UK

  01.01.2020
  This paper explores the role that Fairtrade towns and cities can play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the largest consumers of resources, cities have a crucial role to play in the transition towards sustainable development, both within and outside their geographical boundaries. In the UK, towns and cities have driven the expansion of the Fair Trade movement through the ‘Fairtrade Town’ campaign, but an exploration of the relationship with sustainable development is currently missing. By applying power analysis we investigate campaign material produced by the Fairtrade Foundation and the experience of local campaigners. Our findings suggest that Fairtrade Towns operate as campaign spaces for sustainable development, challenging multiple forms of power and mobilizing resources on interrelated levels. Providing a framework to foster social equity on a glocal level, Fairtrade Towns hold the potential to contribute to multiple SDGs, representing a systemic approach to sustainable communities and cities.

• (Article) Fair Trade and sustainable rural development: case studies on the role of producer companies in India

  01.01.2020
  Sustainable development has acquired a new thrust with the focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations. At the same time, there are many public and private sustainability standards in the food and fibre sector which address sustainability, such as organic, ethical, and Fair Trade as market-based systems. This paper assesses the impact of Fair Trade on the SDGs at the local level in terms of income of the producers by considering both Fair Trade and Non-Fair Trade farmers in the specific context of the producer companies involved in Fairtrade-Certified peanut production and its marketing in Gujarat, India. It was found that Fairtrade provided an alternative outlet for farmer produce though it had poor impact in terms of uptake of Fairtrade-Certified produce and prices delivered were low compared with those in existing channels. On the other hand, worker issues were not addressed due to the prevalence of labour tenancy in the study area.

• (Article) Fostering smallholder investment and innovation through inclusive financial services

  01.03.2020
  This article provides a framework, with supporting examples, for addressing finance for smallholder investment for innovation. Smallholder households function in interconnected ‘systems’ radiating outwards from the household unit: livelihoods, agricultural market systems, community and society, and infrastructure and policy. An inclusive livelihoods model analyses what would need to be true for uptake of innovations by women, men, and youth, and what financial and non-financial products are needed. ‘Customer centric’ integrated value chain financing solutions are tailored to smallholder market segments along eight pathways for growth. A roadmap for facilitating innovation and change using priority pathways, yet grounded in proven financial and development principles, is recommended. Tools and approaches include: value chain facilitation and capacity development – aggregation, market linkages, and private–public partnerships; financial tools – transaction-based financing, flexible products, and risk mitigators; and innovations in service delivery – digital and ICT applications.

• (Article) Editorial: Special Edition on Innovations in Cassava Processing

  01.10.2018
  In 2015 we considered small-scale cassava processing in this journal with interesting results. Since then, cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa has continued to grow by volume, and new uses and value chains are slowly emerging. But many of the founding conditions that hold the sector back remain in place. A tiny fraction of farmers have access to improved cassava planting material and varieties, or farming methods that increase productivity, despite significant investment by major donors. Rural infrastructure remains the key constraint to any leap forward in efficiency in the sector. Policy remains at odds with reality, with new calls for fixed cassava quotas in domestic foods, but very little coordinated action to support these demands.

• (Article) Editorial: Agroecology and the Sustainable Development Goals

  01.12.2016
  Agriculture is back in the spotlight of development efforts, and is seen as central to achieving many of the interdependent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and achieving the mitigation and adaptation targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change. With the global population expected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050, coupled with the negative impacts of climate change on agricultural production, a serious strain is being placed on the sector. This is exacerbated by the concentration of extreme poverty among smallholder farmers in the least developed countries.

• (Article) Family, territory, nation: post-neoliberal agroecological scaling in Nicaragua

  01.12.2016
  Agroecological scaling-up, as the words suggest, is best achieved as a process constructed ‘from below’. How then to understand the political dimension of agroecological scaling, if not also as a popular process of democratization of food systems? This article explores the political and social dimensions of the Nicaraguan process of agroecological scaling, using the frame of food sovereignty, or the right of peoples and nations to define, build, and defend their own food system. As part of the ALBA alliance of Latin American countries, Nicaragua’s government positions itself to the political left of many of the more neoliberal governments in the region. Post-neoliberalism provides a historical context for the repositioning of the state in regard to peasant and family agriculture, rural education, and social economies. As agroecological knowledge is re-produced, shared and multiplied, agroecological organizational structures become essential to scaling-out and scaling-up processes. We discuss the role of the state in determining the popular diffusion of agroecological methods and thinking across the Nicaraguan countryside.

• (Article) Increasing small-scale farmer access to climate services

  01.12.2016
  A key part of increasing small-scale farmer resilience to both climate variation and longer term climate change, both now amplified by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions derived from the burning of fossil fuels, is to strengthen farmers’ adaptive capacity. Implicit in definitions of adaptive capacity is an increased ability to anticipate risk of shocks and stresses through forecasting and knowing how to respond to these forecasts. Understanding forecasts of future weather and climate conditions and applying this understanding, together with other complementary technical knowledge, to a range of decisions about on-farm operations will then build climate resilience. Farmer responses suggest that an initial rationale of a 10–20 per cent increase in output is valid and that increasing forecast effectiveness through combining seasonal and 7-day or 5-day forecasts, together with a focus on agroecological agriculture, may result in an even stronger impact. Long-term forecasts developed through applied climate models that can guide community-based resilience planning and farmer-generated data, e.g. through use of rain gauges, also increase their ability to make resilience-building decisions. Understanding local knowledge and local indicators are important parts of the process, providing a knowledge framework that works for farmers, indicating which decisions are likely to be enhanced by scientific forecasts and adding local context. Increasing access to climate services works particularly well when combined with agroecological advisory services, which deliver greater resilience and productivity compared with conventional, input-intensive methods.

• (Article) Market-based strategies to upscale organic fertilizer use in Nepal to achieve productivity, resilience, and the SDGs

  01.12.2016
  Nepal’s current Agricultural Development Strategy recognizes the need to increase the levels of soil organic matter for productive and sustainable agriculture, and the important role commercial organic fertilizers can play in that process. It advocates for a gradual shift from chemical intensive to more sustainable farming systems; i.e. application of organic as well as balanced inorganic fertilizers to enable sustained levels of production without degrading the soil and environment. To date there has been limited use of commercial organic fertilizers in Nepal. However, recent research has confirmed that semi-organic fertilizer regimes increase yield and enterprises producing organic fertilizers and other soil improvers can be viable. Research has also shown that farmers will use such products if the quality and availability can be assured. This article analyses the situation in Nepal and proposes market-based strategies for policy makers to address the quality and availability issues so that organic matter markets can drive a transition to more productive, sustainable (agroecological), and inclusive agriculture, and thereby enable progress towards agriculture, nutrition, and poverty targets in the SDGs.

• (Article) Supporting the development of democratic and locally controlled small-scale enterprises based on non-wood forest products in Burkina Faso

  01.12.2016
  Non-wood forest products (NWFPs) are an essential part of traditional livelihoods and culture in the drylands of West Africa. They are an important part of agriculture and food systems and remain popular with rural people and recently urbanized populations. Communities generally have free access to communal forest resources, and NWFPs are already an alternative source of income for rural households, especially for women, as they are one of the few resources that women can access, manage, and control. Yet, while residents have access to a large number of trees, the value chains are underdeveloped in terms of potential production levels, end markets, and supporting services. Additionally, the threats of deforestation and degradation are becoming ever more present. TREE AID developed a series of initiatives to help rural populations take fuller advantage of opportunities for commercial trade in tree products while empowering these communities to protect and manage the forests they use and develop their potential to contribute to livelihood needs and well-being. This article focuses on TREE AID’s work in the development of locally controlled Village Tree Enterprises based on NWFPs and in building stronger, decentralized forest governance in Burkina Faso. The approach has the potential to be applied more widely and scaled-out to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

• (Article) Beekeeping for nutrition and income generation in the arid/semi-arid Laikipia region of Kenya

  01.02.2016
  The non-government organization Bees Abroad aims to alleviate poverty by training local community groups in honeybee husbandry worldwide. The benefits extend well beyond just honey. Studies have shown that pollination is greatly improved, and bee husbandry can be partnered with tree planting and growing more diverse crops. Wax, which is often lost through selling buckets of raw honeycomb, can be the basis for value-added products, providing additional income for basic needs. There is good evidence that honey has nutritional and probiotic constituents, and can be used for both food and drink. An example from Kenya describes how mobile phone-based banking facilitates trading in semi-refined and refined honey, and other hive products, even in isolated communities.

• (Article) Developing greener food value chains: environmentally friendly tomato post-harvest operations in four cities

  01.02.2016
  The main aim of the study was to attempt to better understand environmentally friendly tomato post-harvest operations provided by micro- and small-scale farmers and traders in the context of bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) peri-urban and urban areas of four major cities: Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya), Tunis (Tunisia), and Cairo (Egypt). The study was initiated with an in-depth literature review and was followed by in-country, unstructured, informal, one-to-one interviews with a random number of micro- and small-scale farmers and traders and pictographic observations of table tomato post-harvest operations. The findings of the study provided a sample of practices and ‘innovations’ in post-harvest operations that used prevalently recycled post-harvest equipment, sparingly used natural resources, such as water, and powered operations using only energy of human origin. The findings ranged from the use of home-made sand filters for water purification, to large green leaves for ‘refrigeration’, to recycled paint buckets being used as ‘solar ovens’. Waste was averted continually and if it did occur waste was recycled. The findings of the study contributed to increasing knowledge and consequently provided for a better understanding of practices that can potentially contribute to developing more environmentally friendly (greener) food value chains.

• (Article) Transferable case-based lessons from value chain development in Kenya

  01.02.2016
  The aim of this paper is to critique a poverty reduction programme in the highlands of Kenya involving value chain development with 250 small-scale farmers. The paper will address how the knowledge derived from this project might be utilized to ensure the enhanced long-term sustainability of similar schemes in isolated rural areas. Literature relating to the implementation of rural poverty reduction initiatives will be integrated with the narrative of the project, the objectives of which were to support social, economic, and ecologically sound modes of production leading to a reduction in local rural poverty. A final section will relate these themes to some project-specific and transferable recommendations about the delivery of value chain projects with a particular focus on the concepts of governance, gender, and trust which are seen as central to the management of rural development projects.

• (Article) Book Review

  01.10.2015
  

• (Article) Gender analysis of households’ decision-making to reduce post-harvest losses of cassava in Ghana, Nigeria, and Vietnam

  01.06.2015
  This study analysed gender dimensions of decision-making at the household level in cassava enterprise in Ghana, Nigeria, and Vietnam in the context of risks and benefits to food security to ensure value addition to reduce post-harvest losses from cassava. Rapid participatory rural appraisal was used to select a total of 501 households in the countries chosen for this study. Focus and group discussions (F and GD) and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Data were analysed descriptively. Twenty cassava-based activities linked to gender activities in cassava processing households in the selected countries were identified. In all three countries, final decisions to allocate and use resources were taken by men – although women are commonly responsible for post-harvest management. Ownership of production and processing assets is positively skewed to men across the sample with women having rights of use only. Household decision-making objectives for generating peels and attitudes towards cassava peels vary by country and by lineage/descent, largely influenced by culture, level of education, religion, formal employment opportunities, and income levels. Household cassava peels utilization has low value and is therefore not a focus of male interest in Ghana and Nigeria but if value is added, this dynamic may change. This was different in Vietnam where peels are processed generationally for additional household income. This study proposes the design of empowerment/development strategies such as group dynamics and skill acquisition to increase women’s bargaining and decision-making capacities and reduce male/elite capture of interventions.

• (Article) Farmed fish value chain analysis with emphasis on value addition and traceability: case of Kirinyaga County in Kenya

  01.10.2015
  Fish farming contributes to the attainment of food and nutritional security by providing high-quality fish proteins and micro and macro nutrients thereby minimizing hidden hunger. Fish supply in Kenya is mostly from capture fisheries, particularly fresh water lakes that contribute more than 90 per cent of the total fish produced. Agri-food supply chains involve the flow of products and information, and activities from production through to processing and consumption. Through value addition, at each stage, the value is increased along the chain. Traceability enhances tracking and tracing of fish and fish products information in the supply chains. A situational assessment was conducted along the farmed fish value chain in Kirinyaga County in Kenya in June and July 2013. The objective of the study was to assess traceability along the farmed fish value chain. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and data analysis was done using SPSS version 16 software. Most farmers stocked mixed sex tilapia in monoculture, which led to over-breeding and harvesting of small-sized fish, while the market demand was for table-sized fish. The high cost of inputs, especially feeds, increased the cost of production. Value addition was limited as most farmers did not have enough quantities of fish to facilitate value addition. Traceability was limited; only a few farmers kept operations records and most of them did not share production information with other stakeholders in the chain. The study recommends capacity building through training on value addition and traceability along the value chains.

• (Article) Cold chain management during transport operations of perishable food in Mexico

  01.10.2015
  This paper aims to identify how cold chain management is provided throughout the transportation of perishable food, as well as the role of the experience and working conditions of drivers in perishable food transportation. It draws on survey data collected from Mexican perishable food carriers with headquarters in six major cities. The results show the characteristics of the vehicles used to transport perishable food by Mexican carriers and the cooling technologies utilized by vehicles carrying different types of meat. Further, the results elucidate the work experience and training of drivers handling perishable products and problems related to cold chain transportation as a major strength, while weaknesses were those reported with loading delays and lack of widespread wireless system implementation for temperature registration. It also provides one of the first pieces of information on Mexico’s foodstuff transportation system, with the aim of designing strategies for better cold chain tracking during transportation, as a key factor in food waste reduction. It is necessary to incorporate a greater number of participants from other geographical areas of the country in order to get a more detailed overview and to determine similarities and differences between regions. This study provides baseline information for the development of appropriate logistics strategies in cold chain management.