One of the most persistent myths in African agriculture is that commodity prices are set by traders, negatively referred to as ‘middlemen’. Paying lip service to understanding market dynamics has seen most interventions designed to get rid of ‘middlemen’ failing dismally. Working with agriculture markets for the past years has opened eMKambo’s eyes to the Read more about How niche markets influence agricultural commodity prices[…]
Knowledge generation and sharing has been happening in every community since time immemorial. However, there has not been enough recognition of the way knowledge is structured from individual knowledge to household knowledge to community knowledge and to inter-community knowledge sharing. The way most African communities engage with knowledge is different from academic learning where one Read more about Translating common sense into agribusiness models[…]
A fine-grained view of agricultural opportunities in most developing countries can result from better characterization of value chain actors such as farmers. In addition to revealing interdependencies between value chain actors, a nuanced understanding of African agriculture can foster dynamic resource allocation. However, accurate farmer characterization remains a pain in the Palahuru for financiers and Read more about Increasing odds of success through characterizing value chain actors[…]
As agricultural niches become congested and highly competitive, evidence-based decision making has never been so important. It is against these trends that eMKambo (www.emkambo.co.zw) will be conducting a series of master classes to answer the following questions: How can farmers and other value chain actors set prices for their commodities without passing through a complex Read more about eMKambo Masterclasses – First Session[…]
For a very long time, each country has had what it considered a staple food for its citizens. However, climate change, globalization and changes in consumption patterns are disrupting traditional staple foods. My word web describes staple food as a necessary commodity for which demand is constant. Rather than continue promoting a few staple commodities, Read more about How informal food markets disrupt and correct the notion of staple foods[…]
Background Climate change-induced food insecurity and global socio-economic instability compels us to continuously revisit food demand and supply models, especially in developing countries. Conventional approaches like the notion of formal value chains are no longer enough to fully understand food systems. In many African countries, it seems invisible Communities of Practice (CoPs) such as informal Read more about Learning from Invisible CoPs: The role of informal actors and relationships in African food systems[…]
The failure of donor-funded programmes to transform African agriculture is resulting in more attention turning to the private sector as a potential source of better agricultural outcomes. Several multi-million dollar donor programmes have been launched with pomp and media saturation but the end has often not been as loud as the beginning. At the end Read more about From Corporate Social Responsibility to Sustainable Agribusiness Modelling[…]
In a rapidly changing knowledge economy, it no longer makes sense to continue characterizing farmers in developing countries by the size of land on which they produce agricultural commodities. Informal agriculture markets provide various ways through which African farmers can be characterized beyond the smallholder, communal, commercial and other forms which are becoming inadequate. For Read more about How the market can inform better farmer characterization[…]
Many African developing countries have a deliberate bias towards exports in the hope that this can bring foreign currency that is expected to stimulate economic development. However, it seems foreign currency is a preserve of the elite who have developed a taste for foreign toys like large vehicles, expensive furniture, clothes, wine and other expressions Read more about How developing countries over-rate foreign currency[…]
When economists and policy makers in developing countries talk about evidence, in most cases they mean numbers or statistics. For instance in African countries, statistics dominate the language used to describe fiscal policies and budgets in monetary terms. Factors like contribution to GDP, production outputs per hectare and export earnings are all about figures. However, Read more about How African Agriculture is under-rated due to narrow notions of evidence[…]