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One of the main reasons that small- and medium-scale producers are often not participating in growing export markets for high-value agricultural commodities is that they cannot meet strict food safety and quality requirements associated with the delivery of their product to distant and more formal markets. These producers face four distinct problems: 1) how to produce safe food, 2) how to be recognized as producing safe food, 3) how to identify cost-effective technologies for reducing risk, and 4) how to be competitive with larger producers who have the advantage of economies of scale for compliance with food safety requirements. At the same time, lower standards are often applied for domestic markets in LDCs. This project examined the export flows of Green Beans from Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zambia to the EU. The study focused on the five research questions - a) any food safety requirements imposed by green bean importers and the national government. b) how producers and exporters meet those requirements, c) are small-holders squeezed out by these requirements, and d) what are the spillover effects of food safety regulations for exports on the domestic market?

Street foods play an important socio-economic role in African economies in terms of employment potential. Although street food vendors come from diverse backgrounds, the majority are female heads of households. For example, a 2003 census of street vendors in Harare, Zimbabwe showed that about 8 631 people were involved in the business of street food vending15, of which 81% were women. Most of these vendors employ other people to assist with the business and thus consider themselves as employers. A similar census conducted in Lusaka, Zambia in 2003 recorded 5 355 food vendors with a further 16 000 people employed by the business owners. It is estimated that the Lusaka food vendors sell about 81 million meals per ann

The objective of this paper is to assess the potential demand for a new value-added cowpea product – cowpea flour for purchase by women street food vendors. We use a non-hypothetical real purchase decision mechanism that involves real purchase exchanges of 1 kg packages of cowpea flour in a real market environment in Niamey, Niger. Completed market transactions were bounded between an upper and lower limit price. Our results indicate that kossai vendors’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for 1kg of cowpea flour exceeds the costs of production including a retail margin. Differences in WTP averages for different groups of vendors (economic status, vendor processor type and scale of production) were found to be statistically significant. Potential exists for profitable entrepreneurial activity in the cowpea flour business targeting women street vendors from more affluent neighborhoods; those using the wet milling process and those who are medium and large scale vendors.

Smallholder Agriculture is key to livelihoods of many rural households in developing and transition economies. In Kenya, small farms account for over 75% of total agricultural production and nearly 50% of the marketed output. Despite favourable trends in global development drivers such as rising population, per capita incomes and emerging urban dietary preferences, most smallholder farmers remain poor. This study sought to characterize agricultural commercialization trends, identify and prioritize constraints to participation in markets, analyse determinants of percentage of output sold, and explore strategies to promote market-oriented production. A participatory Rapid Rural Appraisal approach, household survey and a Truncated Regression model were used. A sample of 224 farmers: 76 of them growing maize, 77 involved in horticulture (kales and tomatoes) and 71 practising dairy, were interviewed in one peri-urban and one rural district (Kiambu and Kisii, respectively). Results show that in rural areas, lower levels of output are sold and fewer farmers participate in markets compared to the peri-urban areas. Opportunities for profitable commercial agriculture are observed in growing demand, emerging food preferences and intensive farming. At village-level, market participation is hampered by poor quality and high cost of inputs, high transportation costs, high market charges and unreliable market information. At the household-level, the determinants of percentage of output sold are producer prices, market information arrangement, output, distance to the market, share of non-farm income and gender. Strategies are suggested to improve rural input supply, institutional and regulatory framework, enhance value addition and strengthen market information provision.

Jeckoniah, J., Nombo, C., Mdoe, N. (2012). Women Empowerment in Agricultural Value Chains: Voices from Onion Growers in Northern Tanzania. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences Vol 2, No.8, Pp 54-60 Jeckoniah, J., Nombo, C., Mdoe, N. (2012). Determinants of Women Empowerment in Onion Value Chains: A Case of Simanjiro District in Tanzania. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development Vol 2, No.8, Pp 54-60