Sustainability in smallholder organic agri-food supply chains in Tanzania
Keywords:
Business actors, business interactions, smallholder organic farming, organic agri-food supply chain, sustainabilityAbstract
Inclusion of smallholders in organic agri-food supply chains fosters sustainability undertakings and entails greater and significant impacts on ecology, the climate, human health, social and economic well-being of populations. However, many of the smallholder-based agrifood supply chains in the developing economies are not sustainable due to various factors. The study assesses the economic and environmental sustainability in smallholder organic agri-food supply chains based on the involved actors' business interactions. A qualitative research design is adopted. Empirical data was gathered from five cases of organic agri-food supply chains through in-depth interviews with key informants and focus group discussions with smallholder organic farmer groups. These include vanilla, avocados, pineapples, vegetables, and spices value chains. The producer-intermediary, producer-agribusiness, and producer-intermediary-agribusiness interactions are found in the supply chains. Amid the interactions, economic and environmental sustainability are found to increase as equitable actors and business interactions within supply chains increase. Actors need to undertake inclusive interactions that enable them to complement each other by narrowing economic and environmental gaps existing in smallholder organic agri-food supply chains. The study cultivates equitable complementarity among actors in smallholder organic agri-food supply chains. Besides, impaired economic gains limit the long-term viability of environmental sustainability outcomes created in smallholder organic agri-food supply chains. Inclusive business interaction among actors is key for the sustainability of smallholder-based organic agri-food supply chains in developing economies.
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