The impact of value chain constraints on potato farmers: A survey of Nyanga District smallholder Irish potato farmers (2008-2013)

Abstract

The impact of value chain constraints for low resourced smallholder farmers in developing countries is not readily known, making it difficult to prescribe how the same farmers could penetrate high value formal markets. This study investigates the impact of value chain constraints on smallholder Irish Potato farmers in Nyanga district in the eastern province of Manicaland in Zimbabwe. The results assist the smallholder Irish potato farmers in ascertaining value chain bottlenecks to resolve and in accessing high value potato markets. A survey of the smallholder Irish potato farmers in Nyanga was done in which the Rapid Participatory Market Appraisal (RPMA) and a semi-structured interview questionnaire were the dominant data collection instruments. The study found out that the core actors in the Nyanga smallholder Irish potato value chain included input suppliers, business services developers (market linkage and production support), the Irish potato farmers themselves and the fresh potato commodity buyers. Results also show that the value chain presents several constraints for the smallholder Irish potato farmers with the main bottleneck being their inability to afford transportation of both inputs and produce. The road network is poor and the few truckers who come to the area charge high fees which the farmers cannot afford. As the smallholder potato farmers lie in the middle of the value chain, there are middlemen on either side (between the farmers and the input suppliers and between the farmers and the market) who take advantage of the farmers’ inability to raise the exorbitant transportation charges. These middlemen dictate the prices at which to sell seed and other fertilizer and chemical inputs to farmers and at the same time dictate the prices at which to buy produce from the same farmers. Irish potato supply chain constraints are thus hindering farmers from accessing high value markets in the absence of farmer consortiums through which collective bargaining especially in relation to transportation could be negotiated. Meanwhile, Irish potato farmers should carefully screen out the middlemen they deal with as a good number of them are motivated by profiteering at the expense of the farmers.