Quiet Revolution by SMEs in the midstream of value chains in developing regions: wholesale markets, wholesalers, logistics, and processing

Strategies selection for building e-commerce platforms for agricultural wholesale markets: A tripartite evolutionary game perspective

The rapid advancement and widespread implementation of digital technology have created opportunities for the e-commerce transformation of agricultural wholesale markets. The building of e-commerce platforms in this process is of utmost importance and should be approached methodically. This article analyzes the interests and behavioral choices of the agricultural wholesale markets, local government, and wholesalers by establishing a tripartite evolutionary game model. It applies replicator dynamics equations to describe the evolutionary strategies of each party. The findings of the study indicate that the behavioral choices of agricultural wholesale markets, local government, and wholesalers are influenced by their initial intentions. Furthermore, there exists a degree of alignment between the choices made by agricultural wholesale markets and wholesalers. The building of e-commerce platforms by agricultural wholesale markets can be facilitated through direct and indirect government subsidies; this also motivates wholesalers to adopt and utilize these platforms. Agricultural wholesale markets may further incentivize wholesalers to utilize their own e-commerce platforms by offering additional benefits. On the other hand, if the agricultural wholesale markets demonstrate strong initial inclinations toward using third-party e-commerce platforms. In this scenario, the local government has the potential to promote the widespread use of these platforms by providing both direct and indirect financial incentives to these markets, as well as actively encouraging wholesalers to participate in them. This study presents policy recommendations for agricultural wholesale markets and local government to support the effective implementation of e-commerce platforms in the agricultural wholesaler markets and facilitate a smooth transition to e-commerce in agricultural wholesale markets.

Viewpoint: Finance needs of the agricultural midstream

Recent literature suggests that agricultural value chains are changing rapidly and places an increasing focus on the importance of actors and activities taking place in the "midstream" of these value chains, after production and prior to final sale. This article discusses the financial needs of midstream actors in agricultural value chains, emphasizing differences across midstream activities and highlighting how value chain characteristics can influence both financial needs and potential remedies. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the prospects of digital financial services and policy levers for government actors in this space.

Impact Investing Holds Promise for Nutrition If Guided by Evidence

There is a widely recognized need to increase funding available for improving nutrition in low- and middle-income countries and to move beyond traditional grants from development agencies and private foundations. This includes the so-called innovative financing approaches, such as impact investment (i.e., investing with the intent to generate positive social impact). Impact investment is no substitute for much-needed public funding to support direct nutrition interventions, but such approaches could make sense where supporting nutrition entails a "business case" that could create profit for a business-thus fostering the positive returns needed by investors. This includes some food-based approaches, as most households purchase food from for-profit companies and entrepreneurs. Investment in firms that produce nutritious foods for local markets could be profitable and-if it were to improve food affordability, accessibility, or desirability-could help improve diet quality. In this Perspective, we describe these innovative financing mechanisms and discuss their potential for supporting nutritious foods. We note that doing so would require a simple yet evidence-based approach to screening nutritious foods for potential investment, and we describe our experience operationalizing this through a novel nutrition impact investment mechanism: the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility. We conclude by highlighting remaining gaps to explore the potential of impact investment in nutrition and what the nutrition community can do to help fill them-and to mitigate the risk of such approaches being applied in ways that do not lead to positive social impact for nutrition.

Characterizing Retail Food Environments in Peri-Urban Pakistan during the COVID-19 Pandemic

(1) Background: To date, there are limited data in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that collect, monitor, and evaluate food environments in standardized ways. The development of a pilot survey tool, tailored to LMICs and focused on retail food environments, is necessary for improving public health nutrition. (2) Methods: A novel survey tool was developed and piloted in a sample of village retail food environments (n = 224) in Matiari, Pakistan between October 2020 to April 2021. Villages were randomly selected, and food outlets were surveyed within a 500-m radius from each village center. Descriptive statistics (counts and percentages) were used to describe the characteristics of food outlets and the availability of food. To test whether there was a difference in characteristics or in the mean of number of healthy, unhealthy, and total food items available by village size, a χ2 test or one-way ANOVA was conducted, respectively. (3) Results: In total, 1484 food outlets were surveyed for food accessibility, availability, and promotion across small (n = 54), medium (n = 112), and large villages (n = 58). In small and medium-sized villages, mobile food vendors were the predominant food outlet type (47.8% and 45.1%, respectively), whereas in large villages, corner stores (36%) were more prominent. The mean number of total food items (p < 0.006) and unhealthy food items (p < 0.001) available in food outlets differed by village size. The proportion of food outlets with available fruits, meat and poultry, water, and sugar-sweetened beverages also differed by village size (p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: This study informs the global evidence gap in the current understanding of food environments in various ethnically diverse and dynamic LMICs, and the developed methodology will be useful to other LMICs for measuring and monitoring the food environment, especially among vulnerable population groups. This work complements current national and provincial survey efforts in Pakistan.