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Beans play an important role in the diets of rural Ugandans, making up as much as 25 percent of average daily protein intake. They are also an important cash crop within the country, with biofortified beans holding the potential for significant value-added production and income generation. However, this potential is constrained by Uganda’s weak seed systems and uncoordinated value chains, which limit productivity.

The real global price of food surged in 2022, reaching well above the previous peak seen in the 2011 food price crisis. While prices declined somewhat in July 2022, they remain alarmingly high, and some countries have enacted policies, such as export bans, to try to rein in prices on their domestic markets.

Catalyzed by changes to global markets, urbanization, and other trends, agri-food value chains have been growing and changing rapidly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) over the past few decades.  Perhaps more than ever, even in the world’s poorest countries, farmers can access high-value consumer markets both domestically and abroad. Benefiting from access to these high-value markets, however, often requires that crops meet specific quality, reliability, and volume standards.

The CGIAR Initiative on ‘Rethinking Food Markets1 led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), organized a two-day (12-13 Dec. 2022) stakeholders workshop in Abuja, Nigeria. The workshop aims to engage with key stakeholders to kick-start the co-designing of innovations and interventions in ‘Food Markets and Value Chains’ to enhance employment opportunities and increase income for smallholders and SMEs along the agri-food value chains in Nigeria.

The dairy sub-sector in Uganda has witnessed a remarkable transformation over the last few decades. Just ten years ago, dairy exports were negligible; today, the sub-sector comes in third after coffee and fish as the country’s top agricultural export earner. This transformation is especially apparent in the southwest of the country, where a steady supply of raw milk, a broad network of milk collection centers, and the arrival of a handful of large processors provided a promising context for dairy value chain upgrading.