Markets are where we buy and sell. We take them for granted: every day – in our own communities, in our countries, and all around the world – goods and services are exchanged. But in sub-Saharan Africa, millions of smallholders and cultivators of kitchen gardens struggle to bring their goods to market. They find that there are simply too many obstacles along the way. Some can’t find an intermediary to take their goods to market. Some can’t transport their goods, or keep them fresh, so they sell them locally and more cheaply. Some lack the information that allows them to take their produce to where it’s more likely to sell. Some lack access to the technology, training or credit that could allow them to improve their ability to process their food, and to grow their businesses. Some struggle to meet the quality and export standards that would allow them to sell their goods abroad. And whether by immediate cash needs as at the start of a school year, or by the simple inability to store their goods, some are forced to sell quick – and cheap.
Over the past ten years, research funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, through its Crop Post-Harvest Programme, has looked at some of the main barriers to some of the world’s poorest people bringing their goods to market. The research has tried to bring together buyers, sellers and facilitators as well as academics and scientists. Most importantly, the research has brought about change and improvement. And that change has been moulded by the very people that it seeks to benefit. That’s the only way to make any development strategy sustainable. Only those on the ground know what is possible, and only those who have problems with buying and selling their produce can tell what is missing. We have tried to listen to these voices, and make them heard. We talked to people at every stage of the food chain, from farmers to street vendors to the Ministry of Health, ‘from farm to fork’. This publication shows what we found in two countries: Ghana and Zambia. It’s a heartening tale of how research can improve lives, of how change can happen for the better. Read it to find out how.