CHAPTER FOUR

Agrifood Value Chains

Building Resilient Food Systems

Bart Minten, Ben Belton, and Thomas Reardon

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Flexible, innovative value chains are well placed to adapt during crises, continuing to provide food security and support livelihoods

Agrifood value chains have transformed in recent years through rapid growth, increased diversity and complexity, and a revolution in logistics, storage, and retail. But they remain vulnerable to a variety of crises, including disease, conflict, and natural disasters. Their resilience varies with the type of shock, the structure of the chain, and the local context.
Value chain impacts can evolve over the course of a crisis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, agrifood value chain actors first dealt with lockdowns, then with a downturn in demand, and finally with rising prices.
Civil strife, conflict, and natural disasters disrupt food production and markets, often leading to rising food prices. Risks to food security and livelihoods can be reduced through flexible market mechanisms to support value chains as well as appropriate farming techniques and new insurance tools.
Small, informal enterprises and women-owned enterprises are often more vulnerable to crisis impacts, as are producers and enterprises with limited market options.
Agrifood actors respond to crises with short-term coping strategies and long-term adaptations. Improving coping strategies and pursuing transformation that facilitates adaptation are central to building resilience.

To ensure agrifood value chains contribute to recovery and resilience, it is crucial to:

Tailor crisis response to the type of shock, the particular context and value chain, and when possible, different enterprise sizes.
Invest in improved and innovative technologies and tools that build resilience, such as climate-smart agriculture and index-based insurance.
Create a regulatory and business environment that fosters the development and widespread adoption of value chain innovations, such as e-commerce.
Provide opportunities to continue private trading during crises, for example by avoiding trade restrictions and creating safe corridors.
Ensure that women are able to take advantage of financial and digital innovations and have viable coping strategies.
Conduct careful and frequent monitoring before and during crises to target assistance to crucial value chain nodes.