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Local actors’ perspectives on sustainable food value chains: evidence from a Q-methodology study in Kenya

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Abstract

Governments and international organizations are increasingly determined to create more sustainable food value chains (SFVCs). However, only little empirical evidence is available on how SFVCs are understood. Enquiring African food value chain actors allows gathering valuable insights into their perception of sustainability, which characteristics of sustainable food value chains they prioritize, and which obstacles to a sustainable transformation they identify. By means of a Q-methodology involving interviews with 33 Kenyan respondents, four perspectives were distinguished. The first perspective, “economic productivity and growth,” prioritizes economic growth and has only limited attention to the social dimension of sustainability. The second perspective, “food security and food availability,” believes that ensuring food security should be the key goal of SFVCs. The third perspective, “environment first,” is dedicated to the environmental dimension of sustainability; the perspective implies that protecting natural resources is the primary way to sustain this level of production. The fourth perspective, “transformative knowledge,” entails that by innovating and sharing knowledge, food value chains can become more sustainable in different areas. Overall, this study provides reliable insights into how Kenyan food value chain actors perceive sustainability in their sector and which elements they believe should be prioritized when rethinking food systems. The study results are valuable for policy-making to further define an SFVC in Kenya and to pave the way for a sustainable transformation of the food sector in developing countries.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions but can be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Notes

  1. The first number between the brackets refers to the statement number and the second to the rank of the statement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Maíra Finizola e Silva, Sophie Van Schoubroeck, Jan Cools & Steven Van Passel

  2. Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Jan Cools

  3. Department of Plant, Animal, and Food Sciences, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Bondo, Kenya

    Danstone Ochieng Aboge & Calleb Olweny

  4. Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management, Jaramogi Oginga, Odinga University of Science and Technology, Bondo, Kenya

    Matilda Ouma

Authors
  1. Maíra Finizola e Silva
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  2. Sophie Van Schoubroeck
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  3. Jan Cools
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  4. Danstone Ochieng Aboge
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  6. Calleb Olweny
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  7. Steven Van Passel
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Contributions

Conceptualization: M.F.S. and S.V.P.; methodology: M.F.S., S.V.S., J.C., and S.V.P.; collecting data: M.F.S., S.V.S., D.O.A., M.O., and C.O.; formal analysis: M.F.S.; writing – original draft preparation: M.F.S.; writing – review and editing: S.V.S., S.V.P., and J.C.; visualization: M.F.S.; supervision: J.C. and S.V.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. We also would like to thank our Kenyan respondents for their participation in this study.

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Correspondence to Maíra Finizola e Silva.

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Finizola e Silva, M., Van Schoubroeck, S., Cools, J. et al. Local actors’ perspectives on sustainable food value chains: evidence from a Q-methodology study in Kenya. J Environ Stud Sci 14, 36–51 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-023-00854-5

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