A Review of Guidelines on Agri-food Value Chain Modeling

Value chain (VC)-based approaches have been appropriate for development in agricultural and food systems, while the VC has an important effect for the farmers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers as well as for the external organizations that provide the development process. Moreover, the VC highlights the multiple ways in which producers and consumers are linked through a variety of processes, interactions, and stakeholders. Thus, a well-selected VC will be connected to an expanding and profitable market. The study aimed to examine the guidelines which provides an insight for sustainable food systems, which requires different approaches to ensure economic and social prosperity while preserving the environment and biodiversity for agri-food VC. The study reviewed 14 guidelines, such as ILO, VCA4D, UNIDO, and GTZ/GIS, which are investigated through the area of interest that concentrates on topics according to the analytical framework of the VC analysis. Selected guidelines were based on the four-dimensional approach: institutional/functional, economic/financial, social, and environmental evaluation. Institutional/functional analysis provides a detailed profile of the industry structure through the identification, description, and quantification in physical terms of the sequence of operations concerning commodity production, processing, marketing, and final consumption. Institutional/functional tools are mapping, governance analysis, demand and supply conditions, SWOT analysis, and end market analysis. The economic approach of a VC assesses in quantitative terms the creation of “value added” and its distribution to the various agents involved. Another tool is the policy analysis matrix with financial ratio analysis. The social approach consists of the tools of employment creation, gender analysis, gender equality, and decent work deficit evaluation. The evaluation of the environmental approach of the VC is made by hot spot analysis, environmental assessment, and life cycle assessment, which has direct effects, decreasing or increasing the biodiversity. After comparison with the VC guidelines, four guidelines were selected as the most comprehensive in the design of the VC. These guidelines were VCA4D, ACIAR, GTZ/GIS, and FAO (developing sustainable food VCs) which provide a comprehensive collection of tools and concepts related to the VC.