Food System Dynamics (E-Journals)
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Transforming Developing Countries Agrifood Value Chains
Full text linkThe global agrifood trade is highly reliant on developing countries, which affects value chain transformation and which often results in an imbalance of governance and value addition. In order to address this imbalance and increase the overall value creation, this paper develops and empirically tests a framework for agrifood value chain transformation in developing countries. The research employs a qualitative methodology to explore the proposed framework, which is based on a value chain maturity assessment of current practice and identification of a transformation route. Three primary value chain maturity levels in developing countries are established: traditional, managed, and best practice. Each level is determined using key indicators relating to governance (vertical-horizontal coordination, and information flow) and value addition (value orientation, safety, and quality). The application of this framework to Indonesia’s cashew nuts value chain reveals a mix of traditional and managed practices. The short-medium term transformation focuses on enabling farmers, as the decoupled actors, to advance from a traditional to a more managed chain. Further, the major wholesaler and exporter are identified as highly influential in driving the transformation process. The long-term transformation focuses on developing best practices regarding branded value addition and collaborative governance. This framework offers a novel value chain transformation approach based on a maturity assessment technique leading to the identification of transformation routes. This method takes a holistic transformation approach via the evaluation all the value chain actors’ governance and value-addition capabilities. Follow-up research is required to identify the enablers and barriers of globalised value chain transformation, especially with respect to sustainability
Consumer attitudes and value perception for fruit with a lower carbon footprint
Full text linkThis work analyses consumers' attitudes for products characterised by a reduced environmental impact on carbon footprint (CF). Value perception was measured using a contingent valuation approach, asking consumers to state their willingness to accept (WTA) monetary compensation for a product exchange offer. Consumers were hypothetically endowed with a punnet of fruit produced with innovative, low CF farming methods and was offered to exchange it with a punnet of regular fruit. Results showed that demographics affect the value associated with fruit with a lower CF and that consumers' preference for lower CF products is associated with fruit consumption habits and environmental concern. At the same time, a positive relationship with CF levels needs further investigation
Erasmus+ EU FIELDS project: bioeconomy, digitalisation and sustainability skill needs designed with a multidisciplinary approach
Full text linkThere are new challenges and opportunities for agriculture today, driven by the climate change, the greening of the products and processes, the reuse of side-stream products, the raised complexity of the chain and the increased availability of information.To successfully address and react to these drivers, agriculture and forestry needs new business models and skills. The identification of existing and emerging skills needs in bio-economy, sustainability and digital technology is of paramount importance in order to develop a strategic approach to keep the European agricultural sector competitive and sustainable in the long term.The FIELDS approach, starting from the current and future trends and skills needs, will lead to a sustainable European strategy to address these skill gaps. Since agriculture issues and opportunities differs a lot from country to country, the EU strategy will be customised to have a strategy for 7 countries. It will address country-specific actions, occupational profiles and training material to reflect the country needs while keeping EU quality standards (ESCO, EQAVET, and ECVET) to address the mobility of learners through Europe concretely. Complete training made of 4 modules available through the open learning platform: i) common skills and soft skills; ii) sustainability; iii) bioeconomy and iv) digitalisation
Value Chain Upgrading through Producer Organisations: Linking Smallholder Vegetable Farmers with Modern Retail Markets in Indonesia
Full text linkThe study uses three elements of value chain analysis (VCA) – network structure, added value, and governance – to explore upgrading possibilities of value chains of producer organisations (PO)s in Indonesia in order to link smallholders to the modern retail market. Qualitative data are obtained through semi-structured interviews with PO members and other value chain actors. POs upgrade their value chains through linking smallholders with the modern retail market. Upgrading network structures is achieved by building collaboration between PO members and buyers. Upgrading added value is obtained by increasing the capability of farmers to meet quality requirements. Upgrading of governance structures in the chains is reached through contracts as vertical governance mechanisms and enhanced member services as horizontal arrangements
Do Technical Barriers to Trade Measures Affect Vietnam’s Tea Exports? Evidence from the Gravity Model
Full text linkThis paper explores how technical barriers to trade (TBT) affect Vietnam’s tea exports to 55 importing countries from 2001 to 2019. We use the gravity model with different estimation methods: ordinary least square (OLS), fixed-effect (FE), and random effect (RE) to estimate the impact of TBT on Vietnam’s tea exports. The results show that although GDP, population, distance, tariff, and participation in World Trade Organization (WTO) are crucial factors, the TBT measures imposed by these importing countries have significantly negative impacts on Vietnam’s tea exports. Our findings reveal that while a 1% increase in the cumulative TBT measures imposed by developing countries decreases Vietnam's tea export by 0.341%, the figure for developed countries is 1.308%
Lighting on the Road to Explore Future Directions for Agricultural Modelling in the EU – some Considerations on what Needs to be Done
Full text linkIn the field of agri-food, impact assessments to support policy decision-making are often based on simulations delivered by models. The increasing complexity of policies affecting the agri-food sector requires improving thecapacities of current models, connect ing or redesigning them to deliver forward-looking insights on policy objectives. The EU-Project ‘Support for Policy Relevant Modelling of Agriculture’ (SUPREMA) has identifiedupcoming needs in the research and policy agenda, while exploring the feasibility of those potential modelling exercises by testing the existing tools. The assessment has pointed out necessities for model extensions anddevelopment of new tools. Besides, it has revealed the potential of model integration and collaboration to supplement the outcomes of individual models. This is supported in view of the food system approach that isbecoming the fundamental framework for analysing the dynamics of the agri -food sector when considering it from a broad perspective. This paper describes shortly how the assessment was conducted and presents the outcomes and lessons learnt from the project. It pays special attention to the challenges and the policy priorities that are expected to become important issues in the policy agenda in the coming years
Food Loss and Waste Definitions and Measurement Issues: The Case of the Maize Sector in Mozambique
Full text linkCurrent estimates point to food loss and waste as costing around $US 900 billion dollars a year. That is equivalentto around one-third of global food production. The magnitude of this valuation, however, is reliant on the effectivemeasurement of the actual amount of food loss and waste. There are various definitions of this problem, whichdiffer in their scope. FAO, FUSION and WRI are the most prominent institutions that have proposed differentdefinitions of food loss and waste. All of these definitions have been at least partially criticized. Nonetheless, FAO’sdefinition and methodology have been the basis for many studies attempting to quantify food loss and waste. FAO’smethodology is based more on estimation rather than direct measurements. Taking the example of maize inMozambique, using FAO’s methodology to measure food loss and waste at the farm level seems to provideestimates comparable to the available statistics from the national agricultural surveys. Di rect measurements on theother hand, apart from being costly, seem to suffer from representativeness problems as highlighted by someauthors. Also, some of the direct measurement methods proposed by some authors seem to look at food loss andwaste as a static problem, rather than a dynamic problem that evolves over time. Regardless of the level where theproblem of food loss and waste occurs (upper or lower end of supply chains), it results in a deadweight loss forsociety. That is demonstrated by a Marshallian supply and demand diagram
Structural Equations Model of the Concha Prieta (Anadara tuberculosa) Agribusiness Management and Value Chain Performance in the Ecuadorian Mangroves
Full text linkMangroves are tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems that fulfill multiple beneficial functions for preserving life on the planet and the economic support of families living in their surroundings. Such is the case of the mangroves in Ecuador, in which the "Concha Prieta" (Anadara tuberculosa) is produced through the manual extraction of natural populations. However, this production system is threatened by deforestation and overexploitation. This research aims to formulate an agribusiness management model that impacts the A. tuberculosa's value chain performance levels using as validation tools the structural equations model. A non-experimental, cross-sectional, and ex-post-facto field research methodology was applied. The population under study was made up of the production chain participants, through a representative sample of 138 shellfish collectors, 12 managers of shellfish associations, 27 merchants, and 45 restaurants.The study was carried out in the Jambelí archipelago, in El Oro province, Ecuador, in 2019. Likewise, a questionnaire for each stage of the research was designed and validated through experts' judgment. The collected data were processed and analyzed through the structural equations model, using SPSS and AMOS software. The result obtained shows an interdependence relationship between both latent variables, with a covariance index of 0.45, which allows us to infer that as the processes integrated into Agribusiness Management are improved, higher levels are reached in the Performance components of the mollusk value chain and vice-versa. In particular, the exogenous variable Agribusiness Management is related to the endogenous variables mentioned below, with their respective factorial load: Evaluation (0.72); Process innovation (0.69); Internal factors of innovation (0.67); Planning (0.65); Execution (0.58) and External factors of innovation (0.38).Likewise, the exogenous variable Value Chain Performance is related to the endogenous variables mentioned below and their respective factorial load: Physical productivity (0.86); Economic productivity (0.83); Percentage indicator of net income (0.35); Operational profitability (0.21); Quality of life (-0.07) and Leadership in costs (-0.06). We conclude that the Agribusiness Management and Value Chain Performance constructs are interdependent and that the Physical Productivity and Evaluation indicators are the ones that have the most significant influence on this relationship. We recommend simulating these effects and relationships to propose improvement strategies to the said value chain
Table of content
No full textTable of content of papers from the 14th International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks 202
A Delphi Study on Blockchain Application to Food Traceability
Full text linkBlockchain has been described as a breakthrough Information and Communication Technology having the potential to ensure safe, immutable and transparent information exchange between actors. This study attempts to foresee whether Blockchain will play an important role in traceability management and how this innovation is expected to change the agri-food sector's future, using a Delphi group discussion with experts. According to our results, blockchain is potentially recognised as a decentralised system able not only to harmonise safety and quality standards but also to reduce bureaucracy. Greater efficiency and reliability of the system would lead to the establishment and coordination of new supply chain relationships