University of SaskatchewanHARVEST
  • Login
  • Submit Your Research
  • About
    • About HARVEST
    • Guidelines
    • Browse
      • All of HARVEST
      • Communities & Collections
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
      • This Collection
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
    • My Account
      • Login
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
      View Item 
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item

      Assessing the Economic Potential of Nutrient-Dense Foods Supply Chain in Ethiopia

      Thumbnail
      View/Open
      APPIAH-THESIS-2020.pdf (1.438Mb)
      Date
      2020-08-11
      Author
      Appiah, Seth
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
      Show full item record
      Abstract
      The prevalence of child malnutrition in Africa is alarming. Currently, almost six million children under age five are suffering from this problem in Ethiopia. Reducing child malnutrition requires a multi-pronged approach that includes nutritious foods, improved hygiene, and breastfeeding. Poverty and food insecurity have severely constrained the access to nutritious diets that have high energy, protein, and other micronutrient content. Diets based mainly on plant sources may not meet nutritional requirements and need to be improved, either through adding protein from animal sources such as milk powder or through supplemental nutrition products. One option is the formulation of ready-to-use foods (RUFs), which have been a tool to treat malnutrition and undernutrition. RUF is a nutrient-dense food that contains all the essential nutrients for growth and development that can also serve as a food supplement to pregnant women and the elderly who lack essential food nutrients in their diets. The food is packaged conveniently and does not require cooking or additional preparation. Increasing access to these foods has become a challenge to producers and buyers. Cost remains one of the main barriers to greater access, further complicated by constrained funding for procuring the products and the variability of prices of some ingredients, such as peanuts. It is, therefore, crucial to have other versions of RUTF/RUSF made from other ingredients (i.e. chickpeas, barley) that can be produced locally and meet the dietary needs of a target population. Therefore, the focus of the study is to identify the supply chain benefits of alternative nutrient-dense foods in the ready-to-use food supply chain. Data were collected through video interviews with producers and buyers of RUFs in the supply chain. Participants were asked open-ended questions and the responses were transcribed verbatim and analyzed. Patterns and relationships that emerge from the data were coded and analyzed using NVivo 12 plus software. The analysis of interview data reveals key challenges such as logistics, longer lead times, higher procurement costs, dislike of products by some beneficiaries and shortage of critical ingredients for formulation within the RUTF/RUSF supply chain. Despite these issues, the interviews with the stakeholders strongly indicated that alternative recipes, if developed properly, could enhance production volumes by augmenting existing products as well as increasing product accessibility by the intended beneficiaries. The insights from the interviews reveal that encouraging the development of alternative products from local ingredients would reduce some problems encountered during production and procurement, such as the shortage of critical ingredients, long lead times, and high prices of the RUTF/RUSF in the market as there are several options available to the buyers.
      Degree
      Master of Science (M.Sc.)
      Department
      Agricultural and Resource Economics
      Program
      Agricultural Economics
      Supervisor
      Micheels, Eric
      Committee
      Hobbs, Jill E.; Skulrud, Tristan; Thompson, Wayne
      Copyright Date
      November 2020
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12957
      Subject
      Malnutrition
      Ready-to-use foods
      Alternative recipes
      Ready-to-use therapuetic food
      Ready-to-use supplementary food
      Collections
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      University of Saskatchewan

      University Library

      © University of Saskatchewan
      Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy