Fighting Poverty by Fostering Agro-Value Chains

The problem facing many African countries are many and sometimes daunting: widespread poverty, low levels of productivity, insufficient infrastructure development, poorly integrated markets more so in rural areas.

A big proportion of resources are used to meet the demand for agricultural products through technology improvements mainly in seeds, fertilizer and irrigation. Viffa has noted that very little attention is being put in value chains through which agricultural products reach final consumers within and beyond the continent.

The magnitude of opportunity losses caused by this neglect has long been neglected if you consider developed countries add over 200 USD of value by processing one tone of agricultural products, developing countries add less than 50 USD. Further while 98 percent of agricultural production in developed countries undergo industrial processing, in developing countries less than 30 percent is processed.

Agro-processing industries in developed countries generate 40 percent to 60 percent of manufacturing value added and agro-industrial products account for as much as half of their total exports.

Many developing countries are major suppliers of raw materials to the textile, leather and wood industries. Yet in many cases raw material is exported with little processing thus depriving the exporters of badly needed additional income in hard currency.

Further agricultural sector in many developed countries are labor intensive and recruit much of their labor from the most vulnerable population groups. Improving the performance of these industries can therefore have a direct positive impact on job creation and human security.

Viffa Consult supports both conventional and informal producers of agro-value chain with advice on adequate technology, product diversification and identification of market opportunities.