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dc.contributor.authorAgyekumhene, C.
dc.contributor.authorVries, J.R. de
dc.contributor.authorPaassen, A. van
dc.contributor.authorMacnaghten, P.
dc.contributor.authorSchut, Marc
dc.contributor.authorBregt, A.
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-04T11:23:41Z
dc.date.available2019-12-04T11:23:41Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.citationAgyekumhene, C., de Vries, J.R., van Paassen, A., Macnaghten, P., Schut, M. & Bregt, A. (2018). Digital platforms for smallholder credit access: The mediation of trust for cooperation in maize value chain financing. NJAS-Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences. 1-12
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12478/4111
dc.descriptionPublished online: 12 July 2018
dc.description.abstractMaize production is of critical importance to smallholder farmers in Ghana. Various factors limit the productivity of smallholder maize farming systems undergirded by the lack of capital for critical investments both at the farm and at national policy levels. Using a value chain approach, this diagnostic study explains how a complex configuration of actor interaction within an institutionally and agro-ecologically challenged value chain leads to the enduring absence of maize farming credit support. We find a cycle of credit rationing resulting from value chain challenges such as agro-ecological uncertainties, inadequate GAPs training, weak farmer groups and market insecurity. This condition is sustained by an interplay between mistrust, insufficient information across the value chain and inadequate control strategies in the maize credit system. We argue that Digital Platforms (DPs) show potential to help overcome some information and communication gaps and related uncertainties that impede traditional value chain credit arrangements. This is promising in terms of aiding awareness and coordinated responsiveness to agro-ecological farm conditions and the development of farming records databases. Thus, DPs could generate new networks and forms of cooperation in the maize value chain in this regard. As a tool for mediating trust in value chain credit cooperation, strategic use of these DP contributions could help initiate an entry point for recalibration of trust perceptions. Significant considerations and improvements are however needed to harness DPs effectively in mediating trust for maize credit provision, not least being farmer digital inclusion in DP implementation, effective intermediation and network governance arrangements and digital contributions towards cost-effective agro-ecological controls in the erratic maize farming context. This approach to trust building should therefore not be viewed as a quick fix but as a process of trial and error, and learning by doing.
dc.format.extent1-12
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectTrust
dc.subjectNetworks
dc.subjectDigital Divide
dc.subjectInformation And Communication Technologies (Icts)
dc.subjectSmallholders
dc.titleDigital platforms for smallholder credit access: the mediation of trust for cooperation in maize value chain financing
dc.typeJournal Article
dc.description.versionPeer Review
cg.contributor.crpMaize
cg.contributor.affiliationWageningen University and Research Centre
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionWest Africa
cg.coverage.countryGhana
cg.creator.identifierMarc Schut: 0000-0002-3361-4581
cg.researchthemeNATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
cg.isijournalISI Journal
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and advanced research institute
cg.iitasubjectNatural Resource Management
cg.journalNJAS-Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences
cg.howpublishedFormally Published
cg.accessibilitystatusLimited Access
local.dspaceid99547
cg.targetaudienceScientists
cg.identifier.doihttps://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.njas.2018.06.001


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