IFPRI CGIAR
Subscribe

Back

Who we are

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

Kalyani Raghunathan

Kalyani Raghunathan is Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit, based in New Delhi, India. Her research lies at the intersection of agriculture, gender, social protection, and public health and nutrition, with a specific focus on South Asia and Africa. 

Where we work

Back

Where we work

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

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

Subscribe

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

Resource thumbnail

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

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Financial access and digital services within agri-food value chains in Bangladesh

2023Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Islam, Saiful; Wagner, Julia
Details

Financial access and digital services within agri-food value chains in Bangladesh

Agri-food value chains are a crucial element of food systems and local economies around the world. Existing estimates show that intermediary agri-food value chain actors—the operating enterprises that transport and transform food from the farmgate to retailers—account for 60 to 75 percent of value-added produced by the entire agricultural sector of an economy.

Year published

2023

Authors

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Islam, Saiful; Wagner, Julia

Citation

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Islam, Saiful; and Wagner, Julia. 2023. Financial access and digital services within agri-food value chains in Bangladesh. IFPRI Project Note December 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137050

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Value Chains; Agricultural Sector; Access to Finance; Economic Activities; Agrifood Systems; Value Added Tax; Digital Technology

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137050 Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief