An agricultural value chain consists of every person that works to get the crop from the farmer that did the planting to the consumer. Each individual in this chain is important.
When a farmer uses poor quality seed, sprays with a cheap pesticide that is even toxic when there is a pest attack, and when he harvests the maize, he does not clean dry, clean and store the maize properly and also adds some stones into the bags to make them heavier, He gets a low price from a trader when he goes to sell his produce due to the low quality of his produce.
Traders & Millers
When the trader sells the maize to the miller, the miller also offers the trader a low price and the trader does not make any profit. The miller cleans, dries and processes the maize into flour. A buyer buys some of the flour and takes it home but the family does not like the taste of the flour and leaves one of the children sick. This leaves non of the members in the value chain happy.
Value increases
But when a farmer buys high quality seed and uses good pesticides, he gets higher yields and when he dries the maize, winnows and stores it well and decides to sell it with other farmers after carrying out a market research to know the market information, he gets a good price from the trader. The trader then sells the maize to a miller at a better price who grinds the maize and sells it many women at a good price, the women cook for their family the food and every one likes the food. Here every body in the value chain is happy.
This is possible when good practices are used for production, transport, stocking and processing, when farmers, traders and millers work together to build trust and when they are equipped with market information.
