Browsing by Author "Xu Xiuli"

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Agricultural strategic partnerships and farmers’ capabilities in Tanzania: what has (not) worked and why?
(Elsevier, 2025) Kahamba Judith S.; Xu Xiuli
Agricultural Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly promoted as new institutional frameworks to introduce agricultural value chain technologies, transform subsistence farmers into independent commercial producers, and connect them to the global market. Using the case of Tanzania’s Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) agricultural strategic partnerships, this study questions the role of agricultural PPPs in integrating smallholder farmers into global value chains. It explicitly evaluates the partnership interventions and their contributions to the capabilities of smallholder farmers along the soybean and potato value chains. Through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with partnership actors, the study found that partnership efforts mainly targeted the production and marketing nodes to boost farm productivity and market access. The partnerships partly improved farmers’ capabilities by increasing knowledge and good agronomic practices. However, they had a limited impact on access to and use of quality inputs, modern farming technologies, value addition, and marketing capabilities. The effect on production capabilities was constrained by the unsustainable supply of improved seeds and limited access to fertilizers and pesticides, resulting from the absence of arrangements for aggregating input acquisition. The findings also reveal that the partnerships created new markets; however, most farmers were unable to benefit from them due to a lack of market contracts and collective bargaining power among farmers. The study concludes that for agricultural PPP to transform subsistence farmers into commercial ones, it requires inclusive infrastructure development and strong institutions that promote interactions, facilitate technology flow, and address exploitative market structures.
Effects of women’s cooperatives on capabilities and gender relations: empirical evidence from women’s dairy cooperatives in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania
(European Centre for Research, Training and Development, 2021) Kahamba Samwel Judith; Xu Xiuli
Existence of gender imbalances is among the challenges of the agricultural production and marketing cooperatives Sub-Saharan Africa. Promotion of women-only cooperatives have been regarded as a better avenue to enabling women’s inclusion in the labour force and to achieve women’s empowerment. The ability of the cooperatives to achieving women’s empowerment and improving gender relations is still a debate which requires more empirical investigations. The study focused on two women’s dairy cooperatives societies in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania to assess their effects on capabilities among women and gender relations in the households and community. Explorative research design was employed, which used indepth interviews and focus group discussions with women cooperative members and their spouses. The findings revealed that through women’s cooperatives, women’s capabilities improved in terms of being able to run dairy production businesses, to generate more income and they gained full control over milk revenues. The findings further show that capabilities had little influence on the gender relations. The study found that in most households, the capabilities attained had widened the gap between couples. It was found that joint decision-making between the couples was impaired whereby men perceived women’s increased income and a fully control over generated income as a threat. The developed women’s agency could not change gender roles and social norms. As women’s workloads increased, men continued to dominate political leadership positions in the local government and the secondary agricultural cooperatives. The study concludes that women’s cooperatives do not lead to significant improvement in gender relations and gender equality. It recommends the involvement of men in women’s cooperatives activities to challenge intra-household gender relations, cultural and social norms.
Implications of non-governmental organizations’ roles in the success of agricultural public-private partnerships: a case study of Tanzania’s Southern agricultural growth corridor partnership initiative
(Elsevier, 2026) Kahamba Judith S.; Xu Xiuli
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly involved in public–private partnerships (PPPs) as key players in delivering services and goods. This paper explores a unique scenario in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) PPP initiative, in which NGOs serve as secondary partners. These NGOs augment an already established PPP as the partnerships revolve around the NGOs’ donor-funded projects. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective, the paper examines how NGOs’ roles within the context of PPPs influence the success and sustainability of a soybean strategic partnership. Based on interviews with actors involved in the partnership, focus-group discussions with smallholder farmers, and key informant interviews with leaders of farmers’ groups and SAGCOT Center Limited staff, the paper identifies two key roles NGOs play in the partnership. First, building farmers’ capacity through training in soybean production and processing to foster inclusiveness; second, mediating between companies and smallholder farmers by linking them to input suppliers and soybean buyers. The paper highlights the partnership’s vulnerability, stemming from NGOs’ roles shaped by competing logics within the partnership and the nature of their donor-funded projects. Also, the phasing out of NGO projects has weakened the soybean strategic partnership. The study argues that the NGO’s role in promoting inclusiveness depends on aligning partnership interventions with the NGOs’ institutional logics. It recommends expanding NGOs’ roles to include strengthening farmers’ associations and institutionalizing sustainable farmer-private-sector linkages to ensure long-term inclusiveness and resilience within agricultural PPPs.