Study Projects for winter semester 2009 / 2010

INTENSIFICATION OF HORTICULTURAL AND DAIRY VALUE CHAINS AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES, THE CASE OF KENYA
Task:
Assessment of VCs for dairy and vegetable production and their production input structure, identification of intensification processes, their drivers as well as their social and environmental externalities (external effects) along the VCs, description of impact of externaliites esp. on socialand environmental sustainability and on land use changes. Practical training of problem based learning methods, teamwork, scientific research methods. Dairy and Vegetable VCs are analysed separately by groups of 7-8 stundents each.

Participants:
Students from different Msc programmes at HUB, originating from different European, Asian and African countries. The group has divided itself into two smaller teams, one working on dairy and one on green bean VCs.

SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR THE STUDY PROJECTS
Horticultural and dairy production, marketing, supply/value chains and external effects

• Explain how the supply of vegetables/dairy products is organised and coordinated
• Describe processes of intensification in different value chains in Kenya
• Describe the different perspectives of actors (incl. consumers), identify conflicting interests and problems
• Identify categories for assessment of value chains with respect to intensification, socio-economic and environmental externalities
• Identify and assess external effects of intensification processes in the value chains analysed
• Discuss the interrelatedness of the different external effects and intensification processes in the light of historical, social and political developments in Kenya
• Identify possible entry points for intervention or changes, taking into account the above-mentioned aspects

Duration:
October 2009 – April 2010
The empirical research phase takes place in Kenya in March, 2010.