Unraveling the connection between coffee farmers’ value chain challenges and experiential knowledge: the role of farm family resources

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Multiple value chain challenges confront smallholder farmers, which necessitate context-specific solutions. Family resources, such as information and production inputs, are valuable assets for farmers. When properly used, farmers’ family resources can help them in learning how to address value chain challenges. Yet, the learning in rural agricultural value chain literature still does not inform how family resources influence farmers’ learning.

Design/methodology/approach

Face-to-face interviews with 214 coffee farmers were used to investigate how family resources shape farmers’ experiential learning process. The data was analyzed using PLS-SEM.

Findings

Results show that family resources play a crucial role in farmers’ experiential learning process, particular in reflecting on and addressing value chain challenges they are confronted with.

Practical implications

Smallholder farms, as a collective and farmer-centered experiential learning context, can serve as a source of inspiration for extension agents bringing the paradigm shift from technology transfer to participatory advisory services to reality.

Theoretical implications

The study contributes to experiential theory in the context of agriculture by advancing a model on how rural family support can function as a resource to change the mechanisms underlying farmers’ experiential learning.

Originality/value

The smallholder farm is a node in larger social learning networks (e.g. Innovation platform), where resources such as information, labor, emotional support, and production inputs, circulate.

KEYWORDS:

• Agriculture
• coffee value chains
• social learning
• experiential learning process
• family resources
• smallholder farmers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Smallholders are farmers who own small pieces of land and rely almost completely on family labor to raise subsistence crops and one or two cash crops. They are defined by their restricted resource endowment. Because of smallholder farmer’s restricted resource endowment, the terms ‘family farm’ and ‘smallholder farm’ are frequently interchanged. See (Kostov, Davidova, and Bailey 2019; Garner and de la O Campos 2014; Lowder, Skoet, and Raney 2016).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge generous funding received by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to fund a Ph.D. project as part of the program “Value chain Innovation Platforms for Food Security” (VIP4FS) partnering the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), University of Adelaide (Australia) and Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Supervision was provided also thanks to the Entrepreneurial Learning in Inclusive Agribusiness (ELIA) project, as part of the Senior Expert Program (SEP) funded by the Dutch Scientific Council (NWO) in collaboration with the CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Program.

Notes on contributors

Robert Ochago

Robert Ochago is a Ph.D. fellow at the Business Management & Organization, Wageningen University & Research.

Domenico Dentoni

Domenico Dentoni, Ph.D., is a Full Professor at Montpellier Business School, Montpellier Research in Management, University of Montpellier, France.

Jacques Trienekens

Jacques Trienekens, Ph.D., is a Professor at Business Management & Organization, Wageningen University & Research.