Innovative and beneficial informal sweetpotato seed private enterprise in northern Uganda
Loading...
Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Food Security
Abstract
Research conducted in the informal sweetpotato
seed (vines) supply system in the Gulu region, northern
Uganda (2013–2015) revealed a diverse set of actors using
private enterprise in a range of selling and marketing channels.
The different channels offer an efficient and effective marketing
system, providing different services and conveniences for
farmers at different prices. The actors include local vine multipliers,
traders, dry season root farmers, transporters and town
sellers. The local multipliers and dry season root farmers grow
crops during the dry season in swampy areas and sell the vines
in the following rainy season to the many farmers who lack
access to such areas and therefore lack vines to plant. The
presentation and discussion of this case study adds to an
expanding argument in the literature for increased attention
to support actors in informal food crop sectors who are providing
sustainable production and marketing systems on a
platform of beneficial and innovative private enterprise.
Through their commercial operations, vine multipliers and
other actors can effectively meet the demand of customers
and at the right time and place. With suitable dissemination
programmes installed, these actors could also offer access to
new varieties otherwise unavailable to the majority of farmers.
Description
Keywords
Seed systems, Private enterprise, Smallholder agriculture, Vine marketing
Citation
Rachkara, P., Phillips, D. P., Kalule, S. W., & Gibson, R. W. (2017). Innovative and beneficial informal sweetpotato seed private enterprise in northern Uganda. Food Security, 9, 595-610. DOI 10.1007/s12571-017-0680-4