A new sustainability model for measuring changes in power and access in global commodity chains: through a smallholder lens

Abstract

High-value agricultural commodities face substantial economic, environmental and social sustainability challenges. As a result, commodity industries are adopting sustainable supply-and value-chain models to make production more efficient, traceable and risk-averse. These top-down models often focus on giving higher prices to smallholder producers. While an important component of sustainability, this focus on farm-gate prices has shown mixed results in part because they are less effective in highlighting the asymmetrical power relationships and the socioeconomic and ecological complexity in high-value commodity production. Here, we use a novel method to measure and visualise changes in smallholder power in Madagascar's northeast 'vanilla triangle'-home to about 80% of the world's high quality vanilla. Our results reveal the paradox that during the recent price surge an overall increase in smallholders' multi-dimensional power to access economic benefits was accompanied by a decrease in many other equally important measures of sustainability. This illustrates how effective models for understanding global sustainable commodity chains should incorporate smallholders' perspectives that often emphasise complexity and uncertainty, and which aims to increase power and access for producers across both high and low price points.

Modelling cultural systems and selective filters

“…However, rather than placing the emphasis on the trait, the receiver could evaluate the sender. It is well known that transmission is not only based on content, but is also influenced by the carrier of the trait [34]. There are also two more parts of the acquisition and transmission chain of individual and social learning where filtering can take place: what will agents invent, and what will they pass on?…”

Social sustainable supply chains in the food industry: A perspective of an emerging economy

“…Modern production and manufacturing businesses have been observed to have adopted sustainable and balanced models in both their logistics and supply chains. The purpose of such change is to transform their productions from inefficient and risk‐averse to competent and sustainable productions (Neimark, Osterhoudt, Alter, & Gradinar, 2019; Tsalis, Malamateniou, Koulouriotis, & Nikolaou, 2020). The previous literature has highlighted various drivers which have not only motivated but pushed producers to adopt the more sustainable ways of manufacturing.…”

Capabilities Under Telecoupling: Human Well-Being Between Cash Crops and Protected Areas in North-Eastern Madagascar

“…This increase of the level of insecurity in relation with the vanilla price spike has been widely reported for north-eastern Madagascar by different media (Kacungira, 2019;Steavenson, 2019). Further, the vanilla price boom was recently found to also entail an additional burden for households, as they have to allocate substantial labor to secure the cash crop production against thefts, for example in the Sava region of Madagascar (Neimark et al, 2019). This might also apply to our study villages, as participants were concerned about the security situation not only because of the material losses it might involve, but also because the prevailing context of insecurity might be a source of worry and stress, and an impediment to having good social relations.…”

“…Up to 80% of global vanilla production comes from Madagascar, mostly from the northeast, and the country is the second-largest producer of clove, after Indonesia. These two cash crops are currently experiencing a price boom that has driven profound changes in the socioeconomic dynamics of local populations (Osterhoudt, 2018;Zhu, 2018;Neimark et al, 2019;Tilghman, 2019). However, little work has focused on comprehensively understanding the impacts of this boom on the well-being of the affected populations.…”