Scotland's Rural College

Alongside the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and Mzuzu University, Scotland's Rural College has worked on livestock development projects since 2008. During this time, the partnerships have facilitated multiply staff exchange visits, join supervisions of research projects, training sessions, and workshop events.

Projects

Project 1: Assessing the Contribution of the Dairy Sector to Economic Growth and Food Security in Malawi (2012-2015)

Addressing some of the key challenges faced by the dairy supply chain through an assessment of its operation that could help boost the potential contribution of the sector to economic growth and food security.

Scotland rural college 1

Area of work: Livestock, Dairy, Economy
Location of work:
Across Malawi

Project lead:
Dr Cesar Revoredo-Giha
Contact details:
cesar.revoredo@sruc.ac.uk

Partner organisation: LUANAR, AICC
Partner contact:
Dr. Felix Lombe
Contact details:
aicc@aiccafrica.org

Funding:
DFID-ESRC Growth Research Programme
More information:
https://www.sruc.ac.uk/info/120257/food_marketing/802/assessing_contribution_of_dairy_sector_to_economic_growth_and_food_security_in_malawi

Description of project

The purpose of this project was to address some of the key challenges faced by the dairy supply chain through an assessment of its operation that could help boost the potential contribution of the sector to economic growth and food security. In particular, the project assessed issues of efficiency, productivity, infrastructure quality, consumers’ interest for safe milk.

The methodology of project has involved several stages, some of which are:

  • Review of the operation of each of the chain stages;
  • Integration of results into a multimarket model to simulate the impact of different policy scenarios on food security indicators and sector growth;
  • Propose solutions based on the quantitative and qualitative evidence and on the analysis.

Some of the work included:

  • Survey of 460 dairy producers;
  • Semi-structured interviews with 25 milk bulking groups;
  • Interviews with most of the processors and several stakeholders (including donors);
  • Interviews with consumers;
  • Survey to retail shelves (retail audit to collect retail prices);
  • Estimation of a demand system using the latest LSMS for Malawi 2010-11.
Key successes and outcomes so far

The project ended in 2015 but additional work was carried out supported by SRUC.

Information about the dairy sector in Malawi before the project was from 2004 and plenty of it was repeating older data. The project collected and updated the information available about the sector. This information was used for two purposes: one was for the processors to apply successfully for funds to improve the formal dairy supply chains, and second, it was used to carry out an analysis of the incidence of the VAT that the Government imposed for milk.

Future and ideas for partnership development

The website of our project has plenty of information to share about the dairy sector in Malawi. There is additional information that has not been uploaded due to confidentiality and may be accessed upon request.

It is important to mention that the project carried out a research project, not a development one, and therefore, its most important output was the provision of information. I believe that there are opportunities to do similar work for other sectors, considering entire value chains, from farmers to consumers. This can part of a project.

Key for the development of the food industry is to understand the demand that it faces, e.g., how they respond to prices, changes in income, advertising. The information about the food demand is limited and more work should be focused on it. It is important for issues of trade, sustainability, nutrition and health, etc.

Project 2: Formulating Value Chains for Orphan Crops in Africa

Genetic improvement of orphan crops to increase resilience to climate change and improve productivity

Scotland rural college 2

Area of work: Agriculture, Genetics, Climate Change, Sustainability
Location of work:
Across Malawi

Partner organisation:
AICC
Project lead: Dr. Felix Lombe
Contact details:
aicc@aiccafrica.org

Funding: BBSRC as a Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)
More information:
https://www.sruc.ac.uk/homepage/1123/formulating_value_chains_for_orphan_crops_in_africa

Description of project

The current strategy regarding orphan crops focuses on genetic improvement to increase resilience to climate change and to improve productivity, under the assumption that increased diversity of crop species sown and harvested implies a greater diversity of consumption. However, this is not the case in rural or urban areas. The purpose of this project was to more effectively bridge current supply-side research on orphan crops with attitudes from consumers, to help have an impact on poverty, health, sustainable growth and food security in developing countries.

The project is multidisciplinary with the interaction of social, crop and food scientists. Its components comprised:

  1. Supply chain and demand component – It aimed to understand the demand side of orphan crops and their value chains and how production systems interact with their political, economic, societal and cultural contexts. SRUC knowledge exchanged with the African Institute of Corporate Citizenship (AICC), which is interested in the generation of sustainable agribusinesses to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth in the agricultural sector.
  2. Food science component - The food science worked on ingredients and healthy products is targeted to food companies who will be contacted by the project's team members through links with other parties.
  3. Crop Science component - This component worked on strategies for maximising crop productivity and quality, and ensuring resilience to increasing climatic variability and against pests and diseases for the selected orphan crops. In this way, it will complement other international promotion efforts on these crops.
Key successes and outcomes so far

The project ended in 2019 and the plans are to continue transforming the results of the project into papers to disseminate them.

Based on the impact so far, we would say that there are four key successes

  1. The research showed the importance of including the demand on the development of orphan crops and this was understood by the African Orphan Crops Consortium. This was also clear from our discussion with Malawian stakeholders (African Institute of Corporate Citizenship).
  2. The survey of breeders carried out showed their preferences in terms of what orphan crops should be prioritised amongst a list of 101 crops. It highlighted that three top bottlenecks to orphan crop’s use are: knowledge about crops and how they could be used was most often considered the most important constraint, availability of high-quality planting material and market availability.
  3. The project highlighted the need for experienced traders specialised in organising supply chains as a key component for linking farmers to the markets. It was found that these traders require to be specialised on supply chain management.
  4. There are opportunities to produce processed foods that are healthier and the research studied the possibility of substituting current ingredients at least in part with healthier orphan crop ingredients (e.g., amaranth and finger millet).
Future and ideas for partnership development

The survey of breeders carried out showed their preferences in terms of what orphan crops should be prioritised amongst a list of 101 crops. There is the possibility to do work about those crops to study the most important constraint, availability of high-quality planting material, market availability as well as consumers’ interest.

Key for the development of the food industry is to understand the demand that it faces, e.g., how they response to prices, changes in income, advertising. The information about the food demand is limited and more work should be focused on it to be passed to the industry and other stakeholders. It is important for issues of trade, sustainability, nutrition and health, etc.