Kehoe Sarah H, Dhurde Varsha, Bhaise Shilpa, Kale Rashmi, Kumaran Kalyanaraman, Gelli Aulo, Rengalakshmi R, Sahariah Sirazul A, Potdar Ramesh D, Fall Caroline H D
University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
Centre for Study of Social Change, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Food Nutr Bull. 2019 Sep;40(3):369-382. doi: 10.1177/0379572119846809. Epub 2019 Jun 5.
Diets in rural India are cereal based with low intakes of micronutrient-rich foods. The value chains for nutrition approach aims to study supply and demand of such foods. This may aid in development of interventions to improve diets and livelihoods.
(1) To identify how fruit and vegetables are accessed, (2) to describe and map the structure of value chains for exemplar foods, (3) to understand how foods are priced, and (4) to explore factors that affect decisions about which crops are grown, marketed, and sold.
After stakeholder consultation, we identified 2 fruits (mango and guava) and 2 vegetables (shepu and spinach) as exemplar foods. Criteria for these exemplar foods were that they should be known to participants and there should be variability in intakes. We held 24 interviews with value chain actors including farmers, wholesalers, and vendors of the exemplar foods. Data collection was stopped when no new information emerged. We used inductive thematic coding for our analysis.
The value chains for each of the exemplar foods were relatively simple and involved farmers, middlemen, and vendors at either city or village level. The main themes identified as being factors considered when making decisions about which foods to grow and sell were (1) farming resources and assets, (2) quality of produce, (3) environmental conditions, (4) financial factors, (5) transport availability, and (6) consumer demand.
There are opportunities to intervene within fruit and vegetable value chains to increase availability, affordability, and access to produce in rural India. Future research is required to determine which interventions will be feasible, effective, and acceptable to the community and other stakeholders.
印度农村地区的饮食以谷物为主，富含微量营养素的食物摄入量较低。营养方法的价值链旨在研究此类食物的供应和需求。这可能有助于制定改善饮食和生计的干预措施。
（1）确定获取水果和蔬菜的方式；（2）描述并绘制典型食物的价值链结构；（3）了解食物的定价方式；（4）探究影响种植、销售何种作物决策的因素。
在与利益相关者协商后，我们确定了2种水果（芒果和番石榴）和2种蔬菜（独行菜和菠菜）作为典型食物。选择这些典型食物的标准是参与者应该熟知它们，并且摄入量存在差异。我们对价值链参与者进行了24次访谈，包括典型食物的农民、批发商和小贩。当没有新信息出现时，停止数据收集。我们使用归纳主题编码进行分析。
每种典型食物的价值链相对简单，涉及农民、中间商以及城市或乡村层面的小贩。在决定种植和销售何种食物时被确定为考虑因素的主要主题有：（1）农业资源和资产；（2）农产品质量；（3）环境条件；（4）财务因素；（5）运输便利性；（6）消费者需求。
在印度农村地区，有机会对水果和蔬菜价值链进行干预，以增加农产品的可获得性、可承受性和获取渠道。未来需要开展研究，以确定哪些干预措施对社区和其他利益相关者是可行、有效且可接受的。
