Examinando por Autor "Ndagire, Moreen Maria"

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    The Benefits and detriments of intermediaries in the banana value chain in Uganda.
    (Universidad EARTH, 2021-12) Ndagire, Moreen Maria; Wünscher, Tobias
    More than 75 % of all smallholder farmers in Uganda grow bananas, commonly known as Matooke, the country's staple food, which makes it an important food crop in terms of food security and the economy. Bananas are cultivated on approximately 1 million hectares of land in the country. One of the most important key players in the supply chain of bananas are the intermediaries who move the bananas from the farmers and sell them to the final consumer. The most common types of intermediaries in the banana value chain of Uganda include the bicycle intermediaries, the broker intermediaries, and the truck intermediaries. There is a common belief and cases in literature that show intermediaries to exploit farmers, but literature also provides evidence for fair farmer-intermediary relationships. To shed some additional light on the farmer-intermediary relationship an investigation to understand the benefits and detriments of intermediaries in the banana value chain in Uganda was done in Ishaka district, Uganda. Farmgate price level, price volatility and price transparency are used as indicators. Seventy farmers and 30 intermediaries were interviewed and the farm gate prices of bananas of the 70 farmers interviewed were recorded for a period of six weeks. The questionnaires collected information on household characteristics, relation of farmer with intermediary and several other household and farm attributes to control for their effects. The gathered information also provided some general insight on the prices of the bananas at farm gate level. The data was analyzed in a series of multivariate linear regression models. The models evaluated the factors that contributed to making a match between farmer and intermediary and the factors chosen to be evaluated included level of education, size of land, yield of the bananas, gender, and access to other non-farm sources of income. These were evaluated against the type of intermediary the farmers used and there was a significant difference between the level of education of the farmers who used bicycle intermediaries and the broker intermediaries. An analysis of the effect of intermediaries on price volatility showed farmers who used bicycle intermediaries had the most volatile prices while farmers working with truck and broker intermediaries had a more stable price level. When evaluating transparency results showed that intermediaries complained of being cheated by farmers as opposed to the common expectation that intermediaries cheat farmers. It is important to note that this study was done amidst the Covid-19 pandemic and that some of the results may have been influenced by the existing economic situation.