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With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

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IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

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experts

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Julia Wagner

Research Analyst

Bio

Julia Wagner is a Research Analyst with the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit, and is based at IFPRI-Washington, DC.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Publications

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Brief

Gender and age employment gaps within agrifood value chains in Bangladesh and Uganda

2024Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Wagner, Julia
Details

Gender and age employment gaps within agrifood value chains in Bangladesh and Uganda

Using data collected with a novel sampling approach for agrifood value chains in Bangladesh (rice and potato) and Uganda (arabica coffee and soybean), this study documented meaningful gender and age employment gaps within intermediary sections of the value chains, which include trading , processing, and wholesaling activities. While agrifood value chains have potential to generate new jobs and close gaps for both women’s and youth employment in low- and middle-income countries, the study identifies large gender gaps in both operators of intermediary firms and those employed by these firms, as well as an age gap, with few youth operating intermediary firms. The brief offers recommendations for addressing systemic barriers that contribute to gender and age gaps in this “hidden middle” of agrifood value chains.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Wagner, Julia

Citation

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; and Wagner, Julia. 2024. Gender and age employment gaps within agrifood value chains in Bangladesh and Uganda. IFPRI Issue Brief December 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/162977

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Uganda

Keywords

Asia; Africa; Southern Asia; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Employment; Agrifood Systems; Agricultural Value Chains; Youth Employment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh

2024Adong, Annet; Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Islam, AHM Saiful; Wagner, Julia
Details

The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh

Intermediary firms within agri-food value chains operating between the farmgate and retailers typically account for at least as much, if not more, value added as the primary agricultural production sector of the economy, but little is known about how these small and largely informal firms conduct their business. Drawing on a set of innovative surveys implemented amid the arabica coffee and soybean value chains in Uganda and the rice and potato value chains in Bangladesh, we describe the financial activities of the firms that transform agricultural produce into food. We document four sets of results. First, across all intermediary actors in our data the overwhelming majority of transactions are cash-based. Second, although many intermediary actors are un-banked, access to financial accounts varies considerably by value chain segment, commodity, and country. Third, while most intermediary actors report using mobile money for personal purposes, especially in Uganda, very few use mobile money to facilitate business transactions. Fourth, although intermediary actors frequently report exposure to risk, very few effectively manage this risk. We conclude by discussing how intermediary agri-food value chain actors represent an underappreciated population for the promotion of new technologies both to improve the stability of the agricultural sector and to improve outcomes among smallholder farmers.

Year published

2024

Authors

Adong, Annet; Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Islam, AHM Saiful; Wagner, Julia

Citation

Adong, Annet; Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Islam, AHM Saiful; and Wagner, Julia. 2024. The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2266. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151859

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Southern Asia; Agrifood Systems; Finance; Mobile Phones; Technology; Value Chains

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

A network-driven data collection approach for agri-food value chains

2024Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Wagner, Julia
Details

A network-driven data collection approach for agri-food value chains

A key challenge in systematically collecting data on intermediary agri-food value chain actors is that value chains take the form of a network, with actors linked by a series of transactions. Moreover, we have limited ex ante knowledge about the structure or scale of these networks, which complicates the construction of valid sampling frames and limits traditional random sampling approaches to collect data. To address these challenges, we adapt the respondent-driven sampling approach to collect data on intermediary agri-food value chain actors within their transaction-linked network and implement this approach in the arabica coffee and soybean value chains in Uganda and the rice and potato value chains in Bangladesh. We observe meaningful heterogeneity in the structure and scale of agri-food value chains across commodities and countries. Focusing on traders, we show that the respondent-driven sampling approach generates a larger sample of traders who differ in observable characteristics (i.e., value added, enterprise scale, and financial access) compared to a sub-sample of traders generated in a way that mimics traditional random sampling approaches used to study traders. We conclude by discussing how this respondent-driven sampling approach, applied within transaction-linked networks, can provide a useful data collection method for studying intermediary agri-food value chain actors.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Wagner, Julia

Citation

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; and Wagner, Julia. 2024. A network-driven data collection approach for agri-food value chains. Discussion Paper 2256. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144207

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Uganda

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Southern Asia; Data; Agrifood Systems; Value Chains; Networks; Arabica Coffee; Soybeans; Rice; Potatoes

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper