TITLE:
The Networks of Smallholder Organic Horticultural Farmer Organizations and Other Value Chain Actors for Their Change in Two Selected Regions in Tanzania
AUTHORS:
Upendo W. Mmari, Christopher P. Mahonge, Emmanuel T. Malisa
KEYWORDS:
Networks, Smallholder Organic Horticultural Farmer Organizations, Umbrella Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, Organic Horticultural Value Chain, Organic Horticultural Value Chain Actors, Tanzania
JOURNAL NAME:
Technology and Investment,
Vol.15 No.4,
December
2,
2024
ABSTRACT: With the agricultural reforms of 2000s in Sub-Saharan African countries including Tanzania that aimed to capacitate farmers in various areas including technological and marketing areas, the purpose of the study was to determine how smallholder organic horticultural farmer organizations under non-governmental organizations are contemporarily networking with other organic horticultural value chain actors for their change. The study was undertaken in Morogoro and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania. The study employed mixed design informed by social network analysis approach. Most smallholder organic horticultural farmer organizations under local umbrella non-governmental organizations are networking with limited capacity in disseminating, spreading and bridging technological and marketing knowledge and information, inputs and organic horticultural products to other value chain actors. These networks are concentrated on some value chain nodes and vice versa. Consequently, the weak networking has reduced their capacity to benefit from value chain in various ways including failure to cut their transaction costs, increase their bargaining power and economies of scales. This implies that more has to be done to connect remote smallholder organic horticultural farmers with numerous services. That broadly covers the services they scantly receive for those they are totally inaccessible to them. The findings call for various actors to find different strategies to increase the applicability of functional physical and virtual distances between them. This manuscript contributes to the applicability of social network theory in smallholder organic horticultural farmer organizations under non-governmental organizations in Tanzanian context for betterment of organic horticultural sector.