Horticulture Value Chain Analysis

This youth-sensitive value chain assessment aims to create a deeper understanding of where the opportunities for youth employment are in horticultural value chains in Rwanda and how these opportunities can be harnessed. The study also proposes recommendations for a youth employment strategy, presenting opportunities for employment creation at scale as well as short-, medium- and long-term strategies.

This book is the first volume in a collection of contributions arising from a multidisciplinary project developed in the field of agri-food value chain analysis. The respective papers combine a range of disciplines to analyse major agri-food challenges in Europe and South America, offering readers a practical understanding of how risk and uncertainties can be managed by means of validated data and results from agri-food systems analysis. Experts from agronomy, information communication and technology, operations and supply chain management share their findings and propose novel approaches. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to a broad readership who want to learn about current agri-food challenges and requirements, and to professionals whose work involves real-life industry requirements, food and/or farming.

Value chain based approaches offer tremendous scope for market-based improvements in production, productivity, rural economy diversification, and household incomes, but are often covered by literature that is too conceptual or heavily focused on analysis. This has created a gap in the information available to planners, practitioners, and value chain participants. Furthermore, few references are available on how these approaches can be applied specifically to developing agriculture in Africa. 'Building Competitiveness in Africa s Agriculture: A Guide to Value Chain Concepts and Applications' describes practical implementation approaches and illustrates them with scores of real African agribusiness case studies. Using these examples, the 'Guide' presents a range of concepts, analytical tools, and methodologies centered on the value chain that can be used to design, implement, and evaluate agricultural and agribusiness development initiatives. It stresses principles of market focus, collaboration, information sharing, and innovation. The 'Guide' begins by examining core concepts and issues related to value chains. A brief literature review then focuses on five topics of particular relevance to African agricultural value chains. These topics address challenges faced by value chain participants and practitioners that resonate through the many cases described in the book. The core of the book presents methodological tools and approaches that blend important value chain concepts with the topics and with sound business principles. The tools and case studies have been selected for their usefulness in supporting market-driven, private-sector initiatives to improve value chains. The 'Guide' offers 13 implementation approaches, presented within the implementation cycle of a value chain program, followed by descriptions of actual cases. Roughly 60 percent of the examples are from Africa, while the rest come from Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The 'Guide' offers useful guidance to businesspeople, policy makers, representatives of farmer or trade organizations, and others who are engaged in agro-enterprise and agribusiness development. These readers will learn how to use value chain approaches in ways that can contribute to sound operational decisions, improved market linkage, and better results for enterprise and industry development.

Rapid urbanization and rising income levels in developing countries, such as Pakistan, changing diet habits, information and communication technologies, structural transformation in retail markets as well as export market opportunities are catalyzing dynamic change in horticulture value chains. This is causing a paradigm shift in the way horticulture products are produced, processed, and sold, both within domestic markets and in export markets across the globe. The emergence of local, regional, and global value chains is contributing to increasing engagement of the private sector in horticulture, as these firms and markets look for better quality, greater productivity, efficiency, and market penetration. At the same time, consumers demand for safety, quality, convenience and affordable prices is underlining the role of the private sector in the efficacy of the value chains.

This book consists of a series of articles that present novel trends in horticulture marketing and some of the key supply chain management issues for the horticulture industry across a wide range of geographical regions.