Issue 64 of the CTA ICT update: Value chains

SAP Makes ‘Living Lab’ for Cashew Farmers in Ghana

The African Cashew initiative (ACi) aims to give people in the cashew business direct access to modern technology, enabling them to increase their yields, improve business links and develop advanced marketing strategies. Link | Read more...

Revitalizing Zambia’s Agricultural Marketing Information Centre (AMIC)

Zambia's AMIC suffers from a range of weaknesses all along the supply chain for price information. Data collection and transmission is irregular and unreliable, data management is unstructured and lacks strategic supervision, and dissemination is entirely supply driven. Link | Read more...

Fostering agricultural competitiveness – employing ICTs

The USAID FACET Project (Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies) has created a series of briefing papers designed to help USAID missions and their implementing partners in sub-Saharan Africa to use ICTs more successfully. Link | Read more...

National Livestock Marketing Information

The Kenyan National Livestock Marketing Information system is a market intelligence tool designed for use in the livestock sector. In an attempt to improve the links between the various participants in this particular value chain, the system uses cell...Link | Read more...

eRAILS

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in collaboration with the German Centre for Documentation and Information on Agriculture (ZADI), has implemented an electronic advisory service that connects farmers with experts in value chain development. Link | Read more...

OPPAZ

The Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ) is using a variety of ICTs, including the internet, cell phones and handheld computers, to monitor quality and improve crop production. Link | Read more...

KIT Information Portal – Value Chains for Development

This website from the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) provides access to free, full-text electronic documents on pro-poor value chains. It is an information portal that is also an entry point for all other internet sources on the subject, including... Link |Read more...

The Farmer’s Toolkit

As part of their rural market intelligence project, the not-for-profit Ugandan organisation, i-network, developed an illustrated guide for farmers who want to access market information. Available for download as a PDF, the guide outlines the processes... Link | Read more...

ABIS Jamaica

The Agricultural Business Information System for Jamaica, offers a range of web-based market information  that is aimed at anyone involved in agricultural value chains in Jamaica. As well as pricing information for a wide range of commodities,... Link| Read more...

Value chain approach to poverty reduction and development of livelihoods

This website provides an introduction to how value chains can be implemented in poverty-reduction strategies in developing markets. Developed by Research in Use, the site provides in-depth explanations of value chain terminology, compares traditional... Link | Read more...

Value chains of agricultural commodities and their role in food security and poverty alleviation

Agricultural Economics Research Review; Vol. 24 January-June 2011 pp 169-181. This paper is a synthesis of many research projects on value chains for smallholder and poor farmers in India. The last section of the article is dedicated to research into the role that ICTs have in enabling development. Link | Read more...

Value chains versus supply chains

The concept of a Value Chain has existed for twenty years but we find it still is an unclear concept. It has been suggested that the third generation supply chain is based on customer intimacy and is fully synchronized. Link | Read more...

Governance, coordination and distribution along commodity value chains

This paper was produced by the Trade and Market Division of the FAO in 2007. It was compiled in the light of significant changes which are taking place in the value chains of many agricultural commodities, particularly fresh products destined for supermarket shelves. Link | Read more...

Under what conditions are value chains effective tools for pro-poor development?

Some poor households can benefit from participation in formal supply chains, not just as smallholder producers, but also as wage labourers in production or processing, and as providers in the service markets that support value chains. Link |Read more...

Value chains, donor interventions and poverty reduction: A review of donor practice

Reflecting donor agencies’ increased interest in value chains, this report from the Institute of Development Studies examines how poverty alleviation was investigated in 30 projects. The authors, John Humphrey and Lizbeth Navas-Alemán, found that...Link | Read more...

Research principles for developing country food value chains

This report is authored by a range of experts from universities and research institutes around the world, including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Kenya and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Link | Read more...

Using value chain approaches in agribusiness and agriculture

‘A value chain is a sequence of steps involved in the process of production to market delivery of a product. It provides a means of understanding relationships between businesses, methods for increasing efficiency, and ways to enable businesses to increase productivity and add value. Link | Read more...