Cereal-Legume Value Chain Analysis: A Case of Smallholder Production in Selected Areas of Malawi

Abstract

This article analyses the cereal-legume value chain in Malawi through a comprehensive VC Map, a SWOT exercise and a policy analysis. VC participation entails a number of challenges for smallholders. Limited access to land, technology and inputs, inadequate knowledge of market functioning, insufficient access to credit and extension services, combined with more general problems of poor infrastructures, often prevent smallholder farmers from accessing profitable market opportunities. The effectiveness of national policies (e.g., public extension service support, inputs subsidy system) oriented to increase smallholders’ market access is often constrained by inadequate financial capacity, an inefficient public extension services system and limited involvement of privates in the extension services scheme. VC interventions should distinguish between VC-ready farmers, namely those provided with the minimum conditions of external and internal factors, and non-value-chain-ready farmers. Market-based interventions (e.g., enhancing VC coordination) are needed for enhancing market access of value-chain-ready farmers. Conversely, while non-market-based interventions (e.g., investments in basic infrastructure, increasing extension services, credit and inputs access) prove necessary to build the minimum asset thresholds for non-value-chain-ready farmers’ participation in the market. A smallholder-friendly VC development relies on the role played by VC actors and the need to harmonise and improve existing policies to remove inadequacies, conflicts and overlaps in the various institutions charged with implementation.

Resistance to Agricultural Commercialization with Lack of Marketing Digital Adoption in Indonesia's Dieng Plateau

“…Income generated from the sale of agricultural produce can facilitate the purchase of non-food items such as health care, agricultural materials, education, and household assets. (2) Commercialization can increase production scale, labor demand, and local job creation. Commercial-scale agriculture is expected to positively impact food production, food security, family welfare, and rural livelihoods [10].…”

“…Various obstacles arise when farmers are faced with commercializing their agricultural products. According to the researches [2,3], seed shortages and land degradation are significant problems from a production perspective. Access to fertilizers and other production inputs, such as seeds, remains a significant barrier for smallholders [2].…”

“…According to the researches [2,3], seed shortages and land degradation are significant problems from a production perspective. Access to fertilizers and other production inputs, such as seeds, remains a significant barrier for smallholders [2]. This condition ultimately impacts the quantity and quality produced [3].…”

“…This condition ultimately impacts the quantity and quality produced [3]. Another obstacle is farmers' lack of technical skills, a lack of production technology, a low level of mechanization, and limited development and transfer of production technology [2].…”

Identifying the Constraints and Opportunities for Increasing Pulses’ Production and Value Chain Development in Pakistan: A Delphi Approach

“…Therefore, many studies have proved that agri-value chain played a vital role in the rural transformation in developing and emerging economies (Abdul-Rahaman and Abdulai 2020; Ma et al 2022;Tian et al 2022;Ndlovu et al 2022). For instance, (Gelli et al 2020;Branca et al 2021) reported the development of the pulses/legumes value chains for improving the diets and nutrition security in Malawai. Likewise, (Ganguly and Gulati 2022) in India revealed that pulses value chains development was helpful in addressing the observed protein gap in the diets and also improve the livelihood of the smallholder farmers.…”