TY - JOUR
T1 - Agricultural Value Chain Development Projects and Household Nutrition in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Côte d'Ivoire
AU - Schurman, Rachel
AU - Munro, William
AU - Bassett, Thomas
AU - Koné, Moussa
AU - Moseley, William
AU - Ouedraogo, Melanie
AU - Gengenbach, Heidi
AU - Comé, Alcino
AU - Nhabinde, Justino
AU - Gunther, Matt
N1 - The AGRA rice commercialization project in Burkina Faso was funded by the Gates Foundation via the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The project was set up as an import substitution initiative to produce more rice for Burkina Faso's growing urban population. With urban diets changing in the region, rice has quickly supplanted millet, sorghum and maize as a foodstuff as it is easier to prepare and is perceived as a more modern cereal by many urban households (Moseley et al., 2010 ). With Burkina Faso producing only 25 per cent of its own rice, a growing dependence on imported rice has been a vulnerability, especially when international rice prices spike as they did in 2007\u201308.
By 2013, Impala stakeholders had decided to expand the value chain into the southern province of Inhambane, where women had dominated cassava production, processing and sales since the late 1700s (Gengenbach et al., 2022 ). Processed Inhambane cassava would supply CDM's flagship Maputo brewery, and the anticipated high number of female participants would ensure a positive impact on FNS. The southern scale\u2010up relied on substantial new funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through a seven\u2010year, US$ 45 million initiative \u2014 the Pro\u2010Poor Value Chain Development Project in the Maputo and Limpopo Corridors (PROSUL) \u2014 aimed at promoting the Mozambique government's value chain\u2010centred rural development and poverty reduction policies. The \u2018primary objective\u2019 of PROSUL's cassava, red meat and horticulture value chains was to enable \u2018the economically active poor \u2026 to generate income for increased food security and to meet basic household needs of health, education and shelter\u2019 (IFAD, 2014a : 9). In 2014, DADTCO began processing cassava in Inhambane's Morrumbene district; by 2016, the firm was also operating in Zavala district, moving the AMPU and DADTCO operations every few months between the two sites.
We wish first to acknowledge the immense contribution of Rachel Schurman, who led this research project with unflagging enthusiasm and energy. As many others will attest, she was an exceptionally generous and inspirational scholar and colleague. Her leadership was indispensable. We acknowledge funding by the National Science Foundation, grant # 1539833. We thank the external reviewers for their incisive and constructive comments. We also acknowledge the many women and men at our field sites who inspired us and made our research possible. In Burkina Faso, invaluable research assistance was provided by Eveline H\u00E9ma, Yacouba Zi, Salimata Traore and Bureima Kalaga, as well as Macalester College students Julia Morgan, Millie Varley, Eliza Pessereau, Jane Servin and Zoe Tkaczyk. In C\u00F4te d'Ivoire, we thank Kouakou N'Guessan Sylvie, Yao Amoin Flora and Tehoua Kadio Jean Amos. In Mozambique, we acknowledge the assistance of Jos\u00E9 Zavale, Adelton Soares and the late Felicidade Chissico. Alex Winter\u2010Nelson helped with research design and Carol Spindel provided helpful advice on the manuscript.
PY - 2025/3
Y1 - 2025/3
N2 - Many mainstream development actors and scholars concerned about rural poverty and hunger in Africa recommend integrating smallholder farmers, especially women, into formally structured agricultural value chains (AVCs). This influential approach rests on the assumption that productivity-enhancing technologies and stronger market linkages will raise farmer incomes, and in turn improve food and nutrition security (FNS) in farmer households via increased food purchases. This article tests this assumption using quantitative survey data and qualitative interviews with women farmers who participated in AVC projects in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Côte d'Ivoire from 2016 to 2020. The survey data show that AVC participation has no statistically significant impact on household FNS or women's dietary quality, regardless of initial household income, type of crop (food, non-food), or market scale (national, regional, global). The qualitative findings explain these results more fully, and reveal major challenges for strategies to improve rural FNS through formally structured AVCs: top-down power dynamics of AVCs do not adequately address smallholders’ needs; participation in AVCs exposes smallholders, especially women, to new types of risk that inhibit their participation; and in increasingly monetized rural economies, women have other spending priorities that compete with food expenditures.
AB - Many mainstream development actors and scholars concerned about rural poverty and hunger in Africa recommend integrating smallholder farmers, especially women, into formally structured agricultural value chains (AVCs). This influential approach rests on the assumption that productivity-enhancing technologies and stronger market linkages will raise farmer incomes, and in turn improve food and nutrition security (FNS) in farmer households via increased food purchases. This article tests this assumption using quantitative survey data and qualitative interviews with women farmers who participated in AVC projects in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Côte d'Ivoire from 2016 to 2020. The survey data show that AVC participation has no statistically significant impact on household FNS or women's dietary quality, regardless of initial household income, type of crop (food, non-food), or market scale (national, regional, global). The qualitative findings explain these results more fully, and reveal major challenges for strategies to improve rural FNS through formally structured AVCs: top-down power dynamics of AVCs do not adequately address smallholders’ needs; participation in AVCs exposes smallholders, especially women, to new types of risk that inhibit their participation; and in increasingly monetized rural economies, women have other spending priorities that compete with food expenditures.
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U2 - 10.1111/dech.12876
DO - 10.1111/dech.12876
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105005510714
SN - 0012-155X
VL - 56
SP - 335
EP - 371
JO - Development and Change
JF - Development and Change
IS - 2
ER -