Market Intervention for Nutritional Improvement (MINI): using microsimulation methods to assess the potential of a produce aggregation service to improve availability and affordability of fresh produce
By Gregory Cooper 06 January 2021
Location/s:
Bangladesh,
Ethiopia,
India
MINI 3

Co-PIs: Professor Bhavani Shankar (University of Sheffield) and Dr Karl Rich (ILRI)

Academic institutions:

  • University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
  • International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Dakar, Senegal
  • London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), London, United Kingdom
  • Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Non-academic institutions

  • Digital Green, Non-Governmental Organisation based in Delhi and Patna, India.

Project duration: Spring 2018 - Spring 2021

Total budget (USD): 987,096

Rationale

Intakes of fruits, vegetables, and meat in South Asia are very low, despite their importance in the nutrition of local populations. Important obstacles to their consumption include high prices and seasonal unavailability that are fuelled in part by poor infrastructure, fragmented value chains, and limited policy incentives resulting in low supply response from farmers. The Loop intervention of the Indian Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Digital Green provides an aggregation service that collects, transports and markets fruit and vegetable production from farmers across Bihar, India and Jessore, Bangladesh. Loop participation has expanded rapidly, from <5000 farmers in July 2016 to >30,000 farmers in August 2018, with farmers noting the benefits of time savings, reduced transportation costs and increased collective bargaining powers at the markets. However, the drive to reward farmers with the highest prices (e.g. from urban wholesale markets) does not necessarily align with the need to improve the availability and affordability of fruits and vegetables in nutritionally vulnerable peri-urban or rural markets.

Project aims

Addressing the above issues, MINI has three principal aims:

  1. What are the implications of the current Loop scheme for the present quantities traded, varieties, and prices of vegetables across the value chain?

  2. How can the scheme be made more nutrition-sensitive, safe and equitable, including the implications of aggregation for food wastage, environmental conditions and gendered outcomes along the value chain?

  3. What are the implications of scenarios for future evolution of the aggregation system (e.g. increased adoption, organic farming, digital financing), particularly on the availability and affordability of fruits and vegetables in nutritionally vulnerable markets?

Study design

The MINI integrated research framework is based around three principal methodologies. First, a rapid value chain assessment (VCA) has been conducted in Bihar to identify the actors, interlinkages and governance structures responsible for moving fruits and vegetables from farm to fork. The VCA was informed by spatial and temporal analysis of the Loop dashboard data (see link below), as well as 49 informal interviews conducted with a range of value chain actors across Bihar, including farmers, market commission agents and consumers. Please see the 'Project Resources' below to read the VCA research brief from Bihar. Second, MINI has conducted a campaign of farmer household surveys across Bihar’s Muzaffarpur and Bhojpur districts to understand the demographics of Loop and non-Loop farmers, their decision-making processes and the effects of the Loop intervention on farm-level and livelihood outcomes. The quantitative survey data have helped to inform the systems modelling activities - which represent the third methodological approach of MINI. These systems models have also been informed by group modelling building sessions – designed to capture the food system insights of different stakeholders across the value chain. In turn, these models have provided virtual environments to explore the future livelihood impacts and trade-offs of Loop evolution, including leverage points to increase the availability and affordability of fruits and vegetables in nutritionally poor markets and the associated costs/benefits to farmer livelihoods. Please see the 'Project Resources' below for our first modelling manuscript published in Agricultural Systems.

Project progress

The project is now into its last three months (projected end - April 2021), meaning the majority of activities are now focused on paper writing and dissemination. As linked below, we have recently published our first modelling paper in Agricultural Systems, and two more manuscripts (one on the Bihar VCA and one on the policy implications of our modelling in Bihar) are currently under review. We are also conducting a rapid survey of the causes of food loss and waste in the horticultural system of Bihar, via a series of telephonic interviews with actors across the value chain. We also hope to write-up the findings here as a research brief and academic paper. Work in Bangladesh is also focused around paper writing, including the main insights from their VCA and modelling activities. The Bangladesh team is also conducting a field survey to understand the perceptions towards food safety across the horticultural value chain. The MINI project will be finishing in April/May with a final dissemination meeting - so please keep an eye out for invites!

Project resources

Institutional websites

Email addresses

Organiser
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