What is the Case Study about?

AUVs provide an alternative source of nutrients and health promoting compounds to reduce hidden hunger in sub-Saharan Africa.  Despite the increasing commercialization of AUVs, they suffer from large inefficiencies in value chains. The IFST case study focuses on optimizing the commercialization of AUVs and the affiliated transfer and transformation of knowledge and technologies among actors of the AUV value chains, in particular with respect to postharvest handling and processing technologies.

The case study analyzes how the commercialization of AUVs affects the inclusion of different stakeholders in production and consumption of AUVs as well as potential implications on social cohesion as AUV consumption also entails social functions. The case study also assesses the role of social cohesion in the acceptance of raw and processed AUVs and in facilitating the establishment of nutrition-sensitive value chains.

Project staff

Prof. Dr. agr. Susanne Huyskens-Kei (Thaer Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr. Christoph Kubitza (Thaer Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Dr. Sarah Hackfort (Thaer Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Cornelia Rauh (Department of Food Biotechnolgy and Food Process Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin)

Lisa Franke (Department of Food Biotechnolgy and Food Process Engineering, Technische Universität Berlin)

Prof. Dr. Caroline Stokes (Thaer Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Partners

Egerton University, Kenya 

Publications

• Hackfort, S.; Kubitza, C.; Opiyo, A.; Aswani, A.; Huyskens-Keil, S 2023. African Indigenous Vegeta-bles, Gender, and the Political Economy of Commercializa-tion in Kenya. Agriculture and Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-023-10498-4  
• Kubitza, C.; Hackfort, S.; Opiyo, A. M.; Huyskens-Keil, S. 2023. The socio-economic effects of the commercialisation of Afri-can indigenous vegetables. Rural 21, 57: 24-25 https://www.rural21.com/fileadmin/downloads/2023/en-03/rural2023_03_S24-25.pdf