Steven Haggblade, Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt, Drinah Banda Nyirenda, Johanna Bergman Lodin, Leon Brimer, Martin Chiona, Maureen Chitundu, Linley Chiwona‐Karltun, Constantino Cuambe, Michael Dolislager, Cynthia Donovan, Klaus Droppelmann, Magnus Jirström, Emma Kambewa, Patrick Kambewa, Nzola Meso Mahungu, Jonathan Mkumbira, João Mudema, Hunter Nielson, Mishek Nyembe, Venâncio Alexandre Salegua, Alda Tomo and Michael Weber
Cassava production surged noticeably in Southeastern Africa beginning in the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the commercial responses and food security consequences…
Abstract
Purpose
Cassava production surged noticeably in Southeastern Africa beginning in the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the commercial responses and food security consequences of cassava production growth in the region.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper incorporates a mix of quantitative analysis, based primarily on original analysis of national farm household survey data, together with key informant interviews with value chain participants in the three neighboring countries of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
Findings
In the cassava production zones, cassava's high productivity translates into per kilogram carbohydrate costs 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the cost of cereals such as maize and wheat, thereby opening up a range of profitable opportunities for commercialization of cassava‐based foods, feeds and industrial products. Despite this potential, cassava commercialization in Southeastern Africa remains in its formative stages, with only 10 per cent to 30 per cent of production currently marketed. Unlike West Africa, where cassava commercialization has centered on marketing prepared cassava‐based convenience foods, the emerging cassava markets in Southeastern Africa have centered on fresh cassava, low value‐added cassava flour, and experiments in industrial processing of cassava‐based starches, biofuels and feeds. Strategic investment in a set of key public goods (breeding, training in food sciences and food safety, and research on in‐ground cassava storage) can help to shape this transition in ways that benefit both commercial interests and the food security of vulnerable households.
Originality/value
The paper compares cassava commercialization across differing agro‐climatic zones, policy environments and food staple zones.
Details
Keywords
David L Tschirley, Jason Snyder, Michael Dolislager, Thomas Reardon, Steven Haggblade, Joseph Goeb, Lulama Traub, Francis Ejobi and Ferdi Meyer
The purpose of this paper is to understand how the unfolding diet transformation in East and Southern Africa is likely to influence the evolution of employment within its agrifood…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how the unfolding diet transformation in East and Southern Africa is likely to influence the evolution of employment within its agrifood system (AFS) and between that system and the rest of the economy. To briefly consider implications for education and skill acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors link changing diets to employment structure. The authors then use alternative projections of diet change over 15- and 30-year intervals to develop scenarios on changes in employment structure.
Findings
As long as incomes in ESA continue to rise at levels near those of the past decade, the transformation of their economies is likely to advance dramatically. Key features will be: sharp decline in the share of the workforce engaged in farming even as absolute numbers rise modestly, sharp increase in the share engaged in non-farm segments of the AFS, and an even sharper increase in the share engaged outside the AFS. Within the AFS, food preparation away from home is likely to grow most rapidly, followed by food manufacturing, and finally by marketing, transport, and other AFS services. Resource booms in Mozambique and (potentially) Tanzania are the main factor that may change this pattern.
Research limitations/implications
Clarifying policy implications requires renewed research given the rapid changes in Africa over the past 15 years.
Originality/value
This is the first paper to explicitly link changing diets to changing employment within the AFS.
Details
Keywords
Victor Owusu, Enoch Owusu-Sekyere, Emmanuel Donkor, Nana Ama Darkwaah and Derrick Adomako-Boateng Jr
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for composite flour bread produced with a blend of 15-40 per cent cassava flour blended with wheat…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for composite flour bread produced with a blend of 15-40 per cent cassava flour blended with wheat flour in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on interviews with 350 consumers in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions of Ghana to assess their awareness, perceptions and WTP for cassava-wheat composite bread. From these consumer interviews, a hedonic regression model was applied to evaluate consumers’ WTP for various attributes of composite flour bread. Price-related and health-related perceptions of consumers on cassava-wheat composite bread were investigated with perception indices. Multi-attribute preference-based contingent ratings that rate product attributes in terms of importance to consumers was employed. The implicit prices of the product attributes representing the contribution of the product attributes to the WTP amount were also computed.
Findings
The paper finds that consumers who are aware of cassava-blended flour bread and who like its taste and texture are willing to pay more than consumers who are unaware. This leads to a policy recommendation advocating increased advertising of the economic and nutritional benefits of cassava-wheat blended composite flour bread.
Research limitations/implications
Future studies should explore the choice experiments to examine preferences for the food product.
Originality/value
This paper evaluates consumers’ WTP for composite flour bread produced with a blend of 15-40 per cent cassava flour and wheat flour. Given widespread reliance on imported wheat flour and the simultaneously large volumes of locally available cassava, it is important to consider opportunities for import substitution (and possible cost reduction for consumers) of blended flour products such as cassava-wheat composite flours. Nigeria has imposed a 10 per cent blending requirement for this reason. Ghana has taken important measures recently for the development of high-quality cassava flour, and so research on its potential and actual uptake is welcomed and highly relevant to food security and agribusiness development.