TY - JOUR

T1 - A strategic approach to value chain upgrading—adopting innovations and their impacts on farm households in tanzania

AU - Steffens, Jesse

AU - Brüssow, Kathleen

AU - Grote, Ulrike

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgments: This publication is a product of the project “Innovating Strategies to Safeguard Food Security using Technology and Knowledge Transfer: A People-centered Approach (TransSEC)” (http://www.trans-sec. org/) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and cofinanced by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The views expressed are those of the authors and may not under any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the BMBF and BMZ.

PY - 2020/6/2

Y1 - 2020/6/2

N2 - The level of agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa remains far below the global average. This is partly due to the scarce use of production-and process-enhancing technologies. This study aims to explore the driving forces and effects of adopting innovative agricultural technologies in food value chains (FVC). These enhancing FVC technologies are referred to as upgrading strategies (UPS) and are designed to improve specific aspects of crop production, postharvest processing, market interaction, and consumption. Based on cross-sectional data collected from 820 Tanzanian farm households, this study utilized the adaptive lasso to analyse the determinants of UPS. To measure the impact of their adoption on well-being, this study applied the propensity score matching approach (PSM). Results from the adaptive lasso suggested that access to credit, experience of environmental shocks and social capital were the main drivers of UPS adoption. In contrast, the engagement in off-farm wage employment impeded adoption. The results from the PSM suggested that UPS adoption has a positive and significant impact on well-being among sampled households, especially with respect to their total value of durable goods and commercialization. The paper suggests that the promotion of social capital and access to financial capital is pivotal in enhancing the adoption of innovative UPS in the farming sector.

AB - The level of agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa remains far below the global average. This is partly due to the scarce use of production-and process-enhancing technologies. This study aims to explore the driving forces and effects of adopting innovative agricultural technologies in food value chains (FVC). These enhancing FVC technologies are referred to as upgrading strategies (UPS) and are designed to improve specific aspects of crop production, postharvest processing, market interaction, and consumption. Based on cross-sectional data collected from 820 Tanzanian farm households, this study utilized the adaptive lasso to analyse the determinants of UPS. To measure the impact of their adoption on well-being, this study applied the propensity score matching approach (PSM). Results from the adaptive lasso suggested that access to credit, experience of environmental shocks and social capital were the main drivers of UPS adoption. In contrast, the engagement in off-farm wage employment impeded adoption. The results from the PSM suggested that UPS adoption has a positive and significant impact on well-being among sampled households, especially with respect to their total value of durable goods and commercialization. The paper suggests that the promotion of social capital and access to financial capital is pivotal in enhancing the adoption of innovative UPS in the farming sector.

KW - Adaptive lasso

KW - Innovations

KW - Propensity score matching

KW - Tanzania

KW - Value chain analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087014715&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/horticulturae6020032

DO - 10.3390/horticulturae6020032

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85087014715

VL - 6

SP - 1

EP - 22

JO - Horticulturae

JF - Horticulturae

IS - 2

M1 - 32

ER -