Assessing the role of organic value chains in enhancing food system resilience – OrRes

Through a comparative case study, this project compares the resilience of organic versus conventional value chains of banana and cocoa in the Dominican Republic and Ghana. Since organic systems (value chains) have been proposed as a strategy to increase the resilience of food systems, the key question is whether they are more resilient compared to conventional systems. This project is supported by a Mercator World Food System Grant. The project period is planned from June 2017 to May 2021.

Objectives

To characterize the organic versus conventional value chains of banana in the Dominican Republic and cocoa in Ghana
Integrate indicator, system dynamics, big data and transdisciplinary approaches to assess the resilience of the characterized value chains
Co-design interventions with stakeholders to enhance the resilience of the respective value chains

Research approach

This project will adopt a transdisciplinary approach: after the initiation of a transdisciplinary process, key indicators of resilience will be identified and measured through qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative approach will harness big data to measure the resilience of the value chains and use econometric analysis to allow an empirical comparison of organic versus conventional value chains. This is complemented by a system dynamics approach to understand processes and relationships between and within value chain activities in both organic and conventional value chains. Using the generated knowledge, interventions to enhance resilience will be designed in partnership with key stakeholders.