IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jodepp/v6y2021i1p108-127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inclusive Business for Smallholders’ Household Food and Nutrition Security: Disconcerting Results from an Analysis of a French Bean Agri-investment in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • James Wangu
  • Ellen Mangnus
  • A. C. M. (Guus) van Westen
  • Alphons de Vocht

Abstract

Inclusive business is regarded as having the potential to improve food security status in the Global South. Despite increased popularity among governments, donors and other development stakeholders, little is known about the approach’s impact on smallholder farmer communities. As such, the above-mentioned inclusive business promise on food security status largely rests on assumptions. This article scrutinises a case of smallholders’ French bean production for export market in Tharaka Nithi County, Kenya. The business model adopted in the initiative is termed inclusive and is intended to enhance food and nutrition security in the community. The empirical findings show that several contextual factors—in particular, access to land and water resources—limit the participation of the majority of farmers in the community. This leads to a notable level of exclusion. Moreover, the company risks negatively influencing local food security when food crops are substituted for an export crop that is not consumed locally. Results of this article demonstrate that while private sector-led development might contribute to higher economic productivity and access to food of better quality, it rarely changes the structural causes of food and nutrition insecurity, which are oftentimes related to access to production resources. We plead for increased scrutiny of the contextual factors when designing and implementing inclusive business models.

Suggested Citation

  • James Wangu & Ellen Mangnus & A. C. M. (Guus) van Westen & Alphons de Vocht, 2021. "Inclusive Business for Smallholders’ Household Food and Nutrition Security: Disconcerting Results from an Analysis of a French Bean Agri-investment in Kenya," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 6(1), pages 108-127, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:jodepp:v:6:y:2021:i:1:p:108-127
    DOI: 10.1177/2455133321994209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2455133321994209
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2455133321994209?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zoomers, Annelies & van Noorloos, Femke & Otsuki, Kei & Steel, Griet & van Westen, Guus, 2017. "The Rush for Land in an Urbanizing World: From Land Grabbing Toward Developing Safe, Resilient, and Sustainable Cities and Landscapes," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 242-252.
    2. Joyeeta Gupta & Courtney Vegelin, 2016. "Sustainable development goals and inclusive development," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 433-448, June.
    3. Lisa Ann Richey & Stefano Ponte, 2014. "New actors and alliances in development," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 1-21, January.
    4. Mohajan, Haradhan, 2014. "Food and Nutrition Scenario of Kenya," MPRA Paper 56218, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 23 May 2014.
    5. Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development, 2011. "National Nutrition Policy," Working Papers id:4396, eSocialSciences.
    6. Tea Golja & Samanta Pozega, 2012. "Inclusive Business – What It Is All About? Managing Inclusive Companies," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 2(1), pages 22-42.
    7. W.O. Chamberlain & W. Anseeuw, 2017. "Contract Farming as Part of a Multi-Instrument Inclusive Business Structure: A Theoretical Analysis," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 158-172, April.
    8. Joyeeta Gupta & Nicky R M Pouw & Mirjam A F Ros-Tonen, 2015. "Towards an Elaborated Theory of Inclusive Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 27(4), pages 541-559, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James Wangu & Ellen Mangnus & A.C.M. (Guus) van Westen, 2020. "Limitations of Inclusive Agribusiness in Contributing to Food and Nutrition Security in a Smallholder Community. A Case of Mango Initiative in Makueni County, Kenya," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-23, July.
    2. Christopher J. Johnstone, 2022. "Conceptualising inclusive development by identifying universality, plurality, sociality, and relationality," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(6), pages 1165-1175, August.
    3. Michelle Scobie, 2020. "International aid, trade and investment and access and allocation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 239-254, June.
    4. Blaženka Popović & Svjetlana Janković Šoja & Tamara Paunović & Radojka Maletić, 2019. "Evaluation of Sustainable Development Management in EU Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Gupta, Joyeeta & Bavinck, Maarten & Ros-Tonen, Mirjam & Asubonteng, Kwabena & Bosch, Hilmer & van Ewijk, Edith & Hordijk, Michaela & Van Leynseele, Yves & Lopes Cardozo, Mieke & Miedema, Esther & Pouw, 2021. "COVID-19, poverty and inclusive development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    6. Anastasiya Ye. Sevastyanova & Victor A. Yatsenko, 2020. "Barriers to sustainable development of municipalities with resource specialisation of the economy," Journal of New Economy, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 21(4), pages 174-191, December.
    7. Neagu Olimpia, 2019. "Disparities Regarding Competitiveness, Human Capital And Inclusive Development In The Eu: A Cluster Analysis," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1, pages 61-71, February.
    8. Bayala, Eric Rega Christophe & Ros-Tonen, Mirjam & Yanou, Malaika Pauline & Djoudi, Houria & Reed, James & Sunderland, Terry, 2024. "Towards more inclusive community landscape governance: Drivers and assessment indicators in northern Ghana," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    9. Saskia Vossenberg, 2018. "Frugal Innovation Through a Gender Lens: Towards an Analytical Framework," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(1), pages 34-48, January.
    10. Michelle Scobie, 2021. "Treaty Preambles and The Environmental Justice Gap," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(3), pages 273-285, May.
    11. Maria-Ana Georgescu & Emilia Herman, 2019. "Productive Employment for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in European Union Countries: A Multivariate Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, March.
    12. David Ollivier de Leth & Mirjam A. F. Ros-Tonen, 2022. "Creating Shared Value Through an Inclusive Development Lens: A Case Study of a CSV Strategy in Ghana’s Cocoa Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 339-354, June.
    13. Michelle Scobie, 0. "International aid, trade and investment and access and allocation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-16.
    14. Peng Zeng & Sihui Wu & Zongyao Sun & Yujia Zhu & Yuqi Chen & Zhi Qiao & Liangwa Cai, 2021. "Does Rural Production–Living–Ecological Spaces Have a Preference for Regional Endowments? A Case of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    15. Joyeeta Gupta & Louis Lebel, 0. "Access and allocation in earth system governance: lessons learnt in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    16. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    17. Freddie Sayi Siangulube & Mirjam A. F. Ros-Tonen & James Reed & Eric Rega Christophe Bayala & Terry Sunderland, 2023. "Spatial Tools for Inclusive Landscape Governance: Negotiating Land Use, Land-Cover Change, and Future Landscape Scenarios in Two Multistakeholder Platforms in Zambia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, April.
    18. Yuan, Mei-Hua & Lo, Shang-Lien, 2020. "Developing indicators for the monitoring of the sustainability of food, energy, and water," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    19. Suwan Lu & Guobin Fang & Mingtao Zhao, 2023. "Towards Inclusive Growth: Perspective of Regional Spatial Correlation Network in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, March.
    20. Morag Goodwin, 2022. "Evaluating the Success of Decentralisation in Facilitating the Inclusion of Rwanda’s Marginalised," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(5), pages 2251-2271, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jodepp:v:6:y:2021:i:1:p:108-127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.