TY - THES A1 - Shuja Ud Din, Aneeba T1 - "SCHOOL FEEDING AND PUBLIC FOOD PROCUREMENT PROGRAMS AS A POLICY INSTRUMENT TO PROMOTE SMALLHOLDER FARMING AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS – A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW N2 - Family farms and smallholders have been kept out of the market niche due to their competition with larger multinational corporations. Smallholder farmers can enter the food market easily by linking them with school feeding programs. National school feeding programs exist globally. However, food quality is a major factor in the success of these programs in enhancing student nutrition. This offers opportunities for family farms to supply nutritious, local organic produce to regional schools and gain access to the food market in urban areas. Students and farmers can benefit from this integration along with all supply chain contributors. Nevertheless, proper management of these supply chains, programs, and farms is a necessity. In this review, the impacts of local procurement for school meal programs are discussed with data from different national programs. Perspectives of farmers, distributors, school management, students, and parents are discussed to assess the advantages of buying from family farms. Challenges faced in the process of procurement from smallholders and associated risks are also examined. Social actors including producers, distributors, consumers, and government that participated in these studies give their opinions on school feeding programs. The main problems arise from the lack of budget and incentives available to farms and faulty logistics that can affect quality and quantity of school meals. Organizational strategies to promote sustainable supply chains and investment in agriculture policies are practical solutions for these challenges. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - THES A1 - Decher, Isabelle T1 - Analysing Marketing Strategies of Agroforestry-Grown Walnuts: Lessons for the Lower Rhine Region N2 - Agroforestry (AFS) could help fight climate change by sequestering carbon (Nair et al., 2021). However, few markets accurately reflect the value of agroforestry products, posing a barrier to farmers implementing AFS (Litschel et al., 2023). In addition, while AFS could i.e. help the Lower Rhine Region reduce nitrate pollution, there is little research on AFS in this region. This thesis aims to reduce these barriers to AFS in the Lower Rhine Region by developing a marketing strategy for one promising agroforestry product: walnuts (Juglans regia). To do this, consumer prices of 62 walnut products from 15 stores in the Kleve area were collected over 46 days to gain an insight into the local market. Secondly, expert interviews were conducted with three German walnut producers to assess their marketing strategies. The SIVA framework (Solution, Information, Value, Access) by Dev and Schultz (2005), was used to analyse the transcripts. Then, the results were adapted to the context of the Lower Rhine Region and agroforestry to provide marketing guidelines for producers of AFS-grown walnuts in the Lower Rhine Region. Results show that not only could new walnut producers successfully compete with imported walnuts in the Lower Rhine Region, but that agroforestry could also be a significant asset to their marketing strategy. KW - agroforestry Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - THES A1 - Koch, Alexander David T1 - Collective Action Opportunities for Upgrading the Value Chain of Small-scale Wooden Furniture Enterprise in Hawassa, Ethiopia N2 - Ethiopia is challenged with a widening domestic wood supply gap and concurrent rapid population growth. Along with these developments, the population’s growing purchasing power is driving the demand for wooden furniture. The majority of this demand is satisfied by small-scale enterprises. Adding to the domestic wood supply uncertainty, such enterprises are exposed to various challenges, such as infrastructural limitations, unfavourable market conditions, weak government support, or skill gaps, thereby hindering their development and often situating them in a subsistent and poor survival state. A development opportunity comes to light when considering that small-scale wooden furniture enterprises are linked to a critical natural resource base, exposed to growing markets, and mostly consist of individuals with an entrepreneurial vision. If guided effectively, this sector has the potential to drive an economic environment of innovative entrepreneurship, create skilful employment, and disseminate propulsive market signals towards wood suppliers. Collective action is a frequently discussed upgrading option for countering development barriers in the context of emerging economies and therefore, is explored as a potential upgrading mechanism. This study aims to develop a potential institutional model of collective action among small-scale enterprises in Hawassa, Ethiopia. The study follows the general procedure of a value chain analysis and frames the collective action model as a potential value chain upgrading strategy. As the target actor is poorly studied, an explorative and descriptive research approach is applied. In-depth interviews were conducted with 54 wooden furniture enterprises to gain insight into their value chain position and condition, cost structures, network ties, as well as challenges. Then, individual enterprises were asked to envision a desired collective action upgrading scenario. Several key informant interviews were also conducted with direct (internal) and indirect (external) value chain actors to forge a holistic value chain structure as well as to triangulate data. The situation for small-scale furniture enterprises was found to be highly unfavourable. The most substantial issue is the limited access to adequate factors of production, especially regarding the production site, physical capital and financial capital. With markets failing to provide these, enterprises were often observed to engage in social network ties with other furniture enterprise to enable access to resources. In addition, the government’s role in supporting these enterprises was found to be weak and poorly organized. Access to support services was observed to be obstructed by ethno-centrism as well as a high labour turnover amongst development agents. Promised trainings and access to factors of production were either rarely fulfilled or qualitatively low. To counter these issues, an institutional collective action in the form of a business association is recommended. On the basis of a literature review, empirical evidence on the status quo of the target enterprises, as well as their perception on upgrading scenarios, the study develops a model association, describing its form, purpose, institutional arrangements as well as the characteristics of participating actors and potential members. It is purposed to facilitate stable network ties and act as a collective voice for improving the condition of small-scale furniture producers. It especially serves to lower transaction costs with authoritative entities, supports the access to improved business development services, such as microfinances or trainings, and advocates for improved market conditions. In the long run, the association will help small-scale enterprises collectively develop into innovative and resource efficient businesses, thereby driving and improving local forest-based markets. Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:1383-opus4-5346 ER - TY - THES A1 - Vambe, Tatenda Enara T1 - A Benchmarking Research on Effective Sales Training Methods N2 - Large organisations annually invest large amounts of money into training and training delivery tools, however, the return from these investments is very low. This study tackles the question that arose after the realization that on a mean curve, the under performing and mediocre performing sales reps take up the majority, yet the excelling sales reps are just but a small population at the end. The question is then, why doe the sales reps that receive the same tools and same training perform extremely differently? To tackle this conundrum, four main models were included in the research. KW - Traininig KW - Sales training KW - Learning transference KW - Benchmarking Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - THES A1 - Leng, Jiale T1 - Analysis of the Blueberry Project for Chinese agricultural SMEs: A Case Study on RBGEA’s Blueberry Project N2 - First of all, my sincere thanks to my thesis supervisor, Prof. Dr. Dietrich Darr, for his endless patience and attentiveness. For over a year from the start of my internship, he took time out of his busy teaching schedule to review, revise my thesis, point out problems and give me sound advice. It was very encouraging and uplifting to complete my project with his help and to gain so much useful experience. I am also very grateful to my other supervisor, Mr. Md Sofiullah, for his constant guidance and help with the structure, theoretical content of my thesis. Inspired by our exchanges, I have successfully completed the whole work of my thesis. In addition to this, I would like to thank the management and staff of RBGEA for their help in writing this paper, Xuna Dai and Hongyan Zhang for providing various specific data and graphs, Hua Li and the entire management team for their support in substantive discussions and team work, and the six anonymous seasonal employees who provided information. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Hoang, Le Duy T1 - A look into the importance of social capital in agriculture extension of developing countries: A case study of the black carp project value chain extension in Hoa Binh, Vietnam N2 - Agriculture extension is an important tool for development, especially in many developing countries where a large part of their economy and population depends on the agriculture industries. As such, many studies have been conducted on how to best utilize an organization available resource to trigger developments with extension activities, but often overlook other available resources that are less tangible, such as social capital – the social relationship value of an individual or organization. This thesis presented how social capital such as linkage and connection from influential actors in society can be utilized by extension projects to trigger development in less well-off communities, via a case study of a value chain extension project in Hoa Binh, Vietnam. The study examines the economic results of the project to identify aspects of the chain that are able to deliver value, and expand upon it with interviews of involving actors to investigate the reasoning for their cooperation. The result strongly suggests that the participants of the project were able to enjoy economic benefit due to the project ability to utilize existing social capital of local businesses to facilitate the cooperation of the value chain, which are capable of generating higher profit than regular channels for the participant involved. Keywords: agriculture extension, aquaculture, social capital, value chain, Vietnam, Hoa Binh. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Pöytäniemi, Pinja T1 - Communication for development: The case of promoting organic farming in northern Ghana N2 - This case study uses a participatory approach to evaluate challenges in communication for development in an agricultural market-based project located in Northern Ghana, “Organic Markets for Development,” The project engages rural communities around Ghana's largest National Park Mole. The four research questions were 1) How do the communication methods used in the OM4D project influence the adoption process of organic farming among small- scale farmers? 2) What is the communication structure and flow of information within the OM4D project social network? 3) What are the challenges in communication that are hindering the adoption process? and 4) Which recommendations can be made to tackle the challenges faced, improve communication, and build organizational communication capacity based on the learnings of this research? The findings indicate that such interventions have high levels of conflict that are essential to moderate by using effective communication methods. The formal third-party organic certification system forces the OM4D project to use the top-down approach. Also, attitudes originating from a top-down approach were observed, where low adoption is accounted for on farmer characteristics rather than limiting socio-economic factors. Overall, the project succeeded in disseminating information and awareness-raising, but the communication methods were insufficient to facilitate the adoption process and establish a shared understanding and practical problem-solving. The recommendation is to include participatory methods in the project to promote effective community capacity building and engagement. KW - Communication for development Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Mizane, Amal T1 - Implementation of organic agriculture and sustainability thinking in higher agricultural education in Uganda N2 - Several significant reforms have been implemented by the Ugandan government in the last few years aimed at converting conventional agriculture into organic agriculture. To analyze the impact of organic agriculture policies on the education system in Uganda, in this study, it has been assessed the number of courses, training institutions, and University programs available during the past years. The researcher also examined from the students' perspective the limitations and possible improvements of the organic agriculture courses to identify possible gaps and develop better strategies. Furthermore, the researcher interviewed students from Uganda Martyrs University, a leading African University in Agro-ecological solutions, with top-rated courses in Organic Agriculture and Agroecology. The research revealed there are several courses available in Uganda based on the policies found. Most programs are dealing with Agroecology and Organic agriculture. Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Camacho, Monica T1 - Urban Agriculture: an alternative to alleviate poverty and food insecurity in Panama N2 - There is an evident global rapid urbanization which has also impacted Panama. People immigrate from rural areas to the cities because they are seeking for better economic opportunities and stability. Agriculture in the countryside, is in Panama a sector with low productivity and incentives. However, with an increasing urban immigration, issues such as food insecurity, in already vulnerable cities emerge. The interest of the study is to analyze the current scenario of Urban Agriculture in Panama and to link the existing gap with studies from different countries in the region that were selected. To measure the impact of Urban & Peri-Urban and Family agriculture, studies which used the ‘Food Insecurity experienced-based scales’ as an assessment indicator, were included. Four out of five studies showed a positive correlation between households who produced their own food, and their Food Security levels. It is concluded that Urban Agriculture & Peri-Urban and Family agriculture may not be systems that can substitute the traditional system on supplying enough food to feed everyone but with support from the estate and enough public policies it has the capability of supplying a good portion that can help alleviate food security and poverty levels. KW - Food security KW - Agriculture Y1 - 2022 ER - TY - THES A1 - Lemmen, Samuel T1 - Operational Effectiveness of Means Reducing Food Losses and Waste in Food Retail N2 - Around the globe, high quantities of produced food do not meet their initial purpose of nourishing humans. Food losses and waste occur throughout food supply chains for various reasons, resulting in unsustainable economic, social and environmental behaviour. Several actors in the supply chain have responsibility to transfer food products from farm to fork, whereas each of them holds potential to reduce food losses and waste. Compared to other actors in the chain, retailers are in the exceptional position of selling items to consumers, commonly offering a huge variety of products. Retailers have power in the chain and are therefore seen as a promising stage where “means” tackling food losses and waste can be implemented. Besides the quantities that can be mitigated by the implementation of means, the adoption of these must be realistic in practice, too (i.e. practical feasibility). Together, the quantities mitigated and the practical feasibility are the determinants of the “operational effectiveness”. Hence, the research objective is to analyse the operational effectiveness of means that can be applied by food retailers to reduce food losses and waste. The objective has been addressed by analysing ten individual means through a literature review, namely (1) improved forecasting, (2) lower order quantities, (3) avoiding rejections, (4) technologies enabling improved shelf life, (5) selling loose products, (6) price-reducing strategies, (7) reducing promotions, (8) alternative distribution pathways, (9) offering a reduced product range and (10) consumer education. Six means showed to “highly” mitigate food losses and waste, whereby five of these exhibit either a “low” or “inconclusive” practical feasibility. Alternative distribution pathways as well as price-reducingstrategies are frequently applied means by retailers and hold a “moderate” practical feasibility. Yet, the evaluation of means related to the use of packaging was mainly inconclusive, which can to some extent be explained by the lacking evidence and disagreements in previous research. Means like reducing promotions or offering a reduced product range appear to reduce food losses and waste, but stand in conflict with the marketing strategy of retailers and offer only a low practical feasibility. The same holds true for avoiding rejections. In that case, although retail standards are higher than required, these could also mitigate a transfer of waste. One of the key findings is that consumer education occurred to hold great future potential, because it showed to indirectly influence other means considered in this thesis, i.e. consumer understanding and acceptance are crucial for various means. Research concentrating on means tackling food losses and waste is limited, especially with focus on studies examining the (potential) impacts on retailing and suggests considerable research backlog. Y1 - 2022 ER -