From Power Imbalance to Interdependence: A Case Study of the Chadian Sesame Supply Chain

Stefano Corsi () and Rosalia Filippini ()
Additional contact information
Stefano Corsi: University of Milan
Rosalia Filippini: University of Parma

The European Journal of Development Research, 2023, vol. 35, issue 3, No 9, 684-714

Abstract: Abstract Smallholder farmers are crucial actors for rural development in Africa. Their participation in global agro-food chains assures a source of revenues and agricultural development. Nevertheless, their position is still marginal. Moreover, there is a lack of data about the participation of smallholder farmers in African supply chains. The paper aims to identify the power regime between farmers, processors, middlemen and exporters and analyse how collective actions and external players’ intervention may modify the bargaining power in the sesame value chain in Eastern Chad. The analysis is based on qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with 98 farmers and 41 stakeholders. The study applies a netchain perspective, analysing the vertical relationships along the food chain in terms of power regime and the horizontal relationships of farmers by observing the first impact of collective actions. The results reveal that the dyadic ties are characterised only by supplier and buyer dominance, and there are no relationships characterised by independence and interdependence along the food chain. Especially, farmers suffer from both buyer and supplier dominance. The analysis of the horizontal relationships reveals that only middlemen organise horizontal agreements to improve their benefit in the commercialisation. The introduction of collective actions for farmers improves their horizontal relationships with potential positive impact on the farmers’ vertical relationships along the supply chain. Thus, their bargaining power may be further developed. This study offers a diagnosis of the farmers’ participation in value chain and future perspectives on the collective actions.

Keywords: Smallholders farmers; Netchain; Sesame supply chain; Collective actions; East chad (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-022-00528-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:35:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1057_s41287-022-00528-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/41287/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41287-022-00528-y

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Development Research is currently edited by Spencer Henson and Natalia Lorenzoni

More articles in The European Journal of Development Research from Palgrave Macmillan, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().