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By Charles Dhewa
Contrary to the formal definition of a market as a meeting place for buyers and sellers, an African market is more than a physical meeting place for farmers and traders. Some of its most important roles include food distribution, supporting rural development, and ensuring nutrition get to low-income populations who would otherwise be excluded from supermarkets and other elite food sources.
Besides confirming that there is nothing super about supermarkets for the majority of smallholder farmers and low-income consumers, COVID19 has broadened the definition of an African food market by showing the extent to which these markets have sustained food distribution under restrictions like lockdowns. African markets are where other actors like processors get commodities for value addition and vendors get what they want for their consumers in residential areas. It is not just about buyers and sellers meeting to exchange goods and services.
The power of mapping food systems
Due to the shifting nature of African markets, mapping food distribution systems has become the best way of identifying the true meaning of a market in the African sense. The same way companies have information about their stocks, schools have registers of students and government departments have detailed information of who is doing what, African markets should have all their details intentionally captured. When that is done, it becomes easy to know who is who among farmers, traders, transporters, processors and many other actors including their profiles.
The fact that huge information gaps still exist means African policymakers are still far from understanding their economies. For instance, persistent demolition of mass-market structures and chasing away of vendors as if they are criminals illustrates the extent to which policy makers have largely excluded and orphaned these institutions from national development plans. Markets can exist in municipal master plans but they do not exist on the ground.
Chasing away enterprises
By chasing away vendors and traders, African governments are unknowingly destroying enterprises on which the majority depend for food and income. It seems African policymakers are still trapped in the colonial settlements mindset which is about scrambling for physical space rather than the ambition space of the majority of entrepreneurs who do not need to in the form of colonial designs like shopping malls and supermarkets.
As demonstrated by African food markets, most enterprises are now so networked that there is no need for voluminous spaces since the movement of commodities has become too fluid. African policymakers are still stuck with supermarket models where a single warehouse can be selling commodities from more than 100 companies. On the contrary, the same space occupied by a supermarket can accommodate commodities from more than 1000 farmers, 500 vendors, and 500 traders in African markets, translating to more than 2000 entrepreneurs.
Everybody knows that the role of farmers is to farm and the role of traders is to trade but what is missing is a thorough understanding of their enterprises including issues around distribution. This is critical in showing the reach out of African food markets. For instance, the extent to which small actors reach out to consumers in marginalized communities and what are the gaps? If food distribution from markets is not going beyond 200km from urban centres, how are consumers staying beyond that reach getting their nutrition? If oranges from Harare are not getting to Binga, how are consumers in Binga getting alternative vitamins equivalent to match what would have been provided by oranges?
The market as a vantage point
Unless researchers use African markets to get to the centre of food supply chains, they will miss critical elements about these important institutions. That is where the researchers can see what is happening from all angles including who is at the bottom of the supply chain as well as which food producers are positively or negatively affected by the supply chain. For instance, subsistence farmers who do not visit markets may have different challenges. It is also along the supply chain one can identify traders who are the best at providing information on how they interact with farmers and consumers including other hidden barriers. On the tail of the supply chain, researchers can see end-users or consumers who are very influential in informing the supply chain about what to produce, for whom, and appropriate costs within which products should reach the market. Affordability is revealed in the market – e.g., the extent to which a bundle of vegetables can be afforded if its price goes beyond USD5.