Consortium Approach to Food Value Chain Development

Agriculture is an important driver and enabler of economic development of most African countries, including the East African Community (EAC), dominated by smallholder farmers, but agricultural productivity and income are low.Several value chain approaches have been adopted, but low productivity and income of smallholders prevailed. The approaches operated were designed to solve problems in one or more phases in the chain and not the entire chain, thus make them less inclusive and sustainable.Consortium approach is a collaborative approach to food value chain development built on win-win partnership that focused on closing gaps of low productivity and income of smallholders. The approach was adopted by Kilimo Trust in the implementation of the Competitive African Rice Initiative project and IFAD projects in Tanzania, EAC aimed at improving smallholders' productivity and income. This book assessed the effects of consortium approach in food value chain development on the productivity and income of smallholders and provides evidence-based data for further improvement in value chain development and prescribes policy implications.