Due to the global pandemic generated by COVID-19 the government of Honduras declared a “state of emergency” in February (“Estado de Emergencia en el Territorio Nacional a través del Decreto Ejecu-tivo Número PCM- 005-2020, 10 de febrero 2020). The country suffered the first confirmed COVID-19 case on March 12th, 2020. The first death was registered on March 26, 2020. This document updates a previous report (Díaz Bonilla, Laborde, and Piñeiro, 2021) on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food systems in Honduras.

Quality standards are increasingly important for farmers to be able to export in high-value markets. Two case studies illustrate both the risks and the potential benefits for farmers related to meeting export standards. Farmers in Kenya defaulted after having their produce refused by an exporter for failing to adhere to export standards. In Honduras, Wal-Mart was able to enforce the practices needed to export jalapeno peppers.

This ILRI discussion paper reviews 20 value chain interventions and discusses the econometric techniques used to address the validity of findings. It explores the use of propensity score matching, instrumental variables, difference in difference, regression discontinuity, and randomized controlled trials. Qualitative and participatory methods are also examined with the idea that they may be able to better capture the complexity of value chain processes.

This guide from CIAT is the first of a four-part series on good practices for value chain development. It emphasizes a participatory approach to build the marketing capibilities of small farmers. 

This strategy paper provides an overview of CIAT’s approach to rural agroenterprise development. The participatory and area based or “territorial” approach is made up from a number of methods and tools that have been developed by the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project team and its partners through project work in Latin America, Africa and Asia over the past 10 years.