Role of informal institutions in Ready-to-Use-Food (RUF) supply chains in Ethiopia
| dc.contributor.advisor | Hobbs, Jill E | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Micheels, Eric | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Clark, Lisa | |
| dc.creator | Adde, Melat Lukas 1990- | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-11-13T20:34:20Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-11-13T20:34:20Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2018-10 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-11-13 | |
| dc.date.submitted | October 2018 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2018-11-13T20:34:20Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Ready-to-Use food (RUF) product are nutrient dense foods given to individuals that are suffering from acute malnutrition. Currently 5.8 million children suffer from malnutrition in Ethiopia and the timely and efficient delivery of ready-to-use food products has a significant impact on the lives of these children. However, challenges exist in both the local and international production and delivery of RUF products. One of the challenges is the high transaction costs that exist in the supply chains. Transaction costs are the costs associated with searching for information regarding a product or its market, negotiating a deal and enforcing the terms of the deal. In situations where transaction costs are high due to missing or weak markets and institution, people have relied on different mechanisms including social capital (trust and information sharing) to deal with these costs and carry out business and transactions. The purpose of the study is to examine the role institutions, in particular informal institutions, play in addressing these challenges and improving the supply chain for Ready-to-use food products and chickpea marketing (which is a potential ingredient in new RUF formulations). The institutions examined in this study are mainly the non-market institutions like trust and information sharing that build social capital. Data was collected through surveys and interviews from RUF supply chain actors in Ethiopia. These include chickpea producers, RUTF producers, major demanders (humanitarian organizations and governments), transporters, beneficiaries (feeding centers and hospitals). These agents’ use of informal institutions and trust level during transactions with each other is assessed. Interviews with key informants in the value chain in Ethiopia were conducted to further inform the analysis of institutions in supply chain organization and identify areas of high transaction cost. The transaction costs that are present in the supply chains were further identified through focus group discussions with farmers and a farmer survey. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze these data. The structure equation model (SEM) was used to quantitatively analyze the data obtained from farmer survey. The study also found that trust between trading partners reduces the time farmers spent negotiating price with buyers. Trust between trading partners also increased the marketed surplus of farmers. Information sharing among trade partners positively affects trust between partners. The study finds that institutions facilitate chickpea marketing through improving trust and information sharing among trading partners. The results indicate that membership in informal institutions strengthens the trust and information sharing between trading partners and this in turn reduces the transaction costs associated with chickpea trade. In addition, the current performance of the RUF supply chain in Ethiopia is found to be relatively efficient with some issues in the availability of local and imported inputs and the failure to comply with quality standards. These results imply that existing, informal institutions in developing countries can be as effective as formal institutions so effort should be put towards their development and improvement. The RUF supply chain can also be further improved by increasing the capacity of local manufacturers to increase production and their capacity to adhere to quality standards. Stabilizing input markets to make inputs to RUF production more consistently available will also improve the production capacity and improve the price and accessibility of RUF products. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10388/11507 | |
| dc.subject | Ready-to-use foods, supply chain, informal institutions | |
| dc.title | Role of informal institutions in Ready-to-Use-Food (RUF) supply chains in Ethiopia | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Agricultural and Resource Economics | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Agricultural Economics | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Saskatchewan | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Science (M.Sc.) |