A. van Tilburg

Tropical food chains: Governance regimes for quality management

International supply chains of vulnerable tropical food products face major problems in the fields of quality performance and coordination between supply chain partners. Degradation and variability of quality, segmentation of supply networks and scattered production by smallholder producers could severely hinder reliable deliveries at required standards. Concerted efforts for improving governance regimes and management practices are required to enhance supply chain performance. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the interfaces between market outlet choice, supply chain governance, quality management and value added distribution. Main attention is given to better incentives and transparency in contracts and bargaining procedures that could contribute to reduced transaction costs and risk, as well as techno-managerial strategies for improving both quality and value added. The editors present an integrated interdisciplinary framework for the simultaneous analysis of technical, managerial and socio-economic dimensions of international supply chain originating in developing countries. Selected case studies based on extensive field research highlight in Costa Rica (mango and pepper), Ivory Coast (pineapples), Kenya (fish), Ethiopia (dairy), Ghana (cocoa), India (cashew) and China (vegetables and pork) provide detailed insights in different options for enhancing integrated quality management and supply chain coordination.

A new method of measuring the adoption of soil conservation practices: theory and applications

Abstract This paper presents a new methodology for measuring the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices that attempts to integrate positive features of earlier approaches. It measures the degree of sustainability observed by the farmer and, at the same time, is straightforward and efficient in field-by-field appraisals. The methodology proposed starts with the identification of all available soil conservation practices in the area. The practices are then grouped into activity categories and are ranked within each category on the basis of their expected soil conservation effect on the plot system. The resulting ranking system is applied to each plot included in the analysis. Non-linear principal component analysis is carried out on the plot rankings to extract a limited number of major metric components. The method is applied to the Cabuyal watershed in Colombia. The analysis shows that soil management strategies of Cabuyal farmers consist of different combinations of basic soil conservation practices: soil disturbance control, soil protection practices and run-off control. A cluster analysis of the plot scores on these three combinations revealed that the different strategies of soil management are related to the institutional, economic, physical and personal-social factors affecting farms and farmers. The results from the cluster analysis show the usefulness of the proposed methodology for policy purposes.