Participatory Inclusiveness in the Potato Value Chain in South-Western Uganda

Smallholder farmers play a major role in the agricultural value chains (AVCs) of developing countries Uganda inclusive, and this has been of great concern to policy makers, development partners, research, and extension workers. The study underscores the evidence of participatory inclusiveness on the potato value chain (PVC) in South-Western (SW) Uganda. The study on which the paper is based adopted a cross-sectional mixed method research (MMR) design whereby both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a Survey Research Questionnaire (SRQ) and a semi-structured interview (SSI) grid respectively. The population sample of 375 respondents to the SRQs and 79 participants to the SSIs was sourced from four Districts of Kisoro, Rubanda, Kabale and Rukiga in SW Uganda. The study was guided by the Relational Risk Theory (RRT) and the Theory of Incentives (TI) in examining participatory inclusiveness. The concept of participatory inclusiveness was studied along the independent variables (IVs) of collaboration, innovation, support opportunities, and combined participatory inclusiveness and dependent variables (DVs) of actor influencers (AIs) chain influencers (CIs) and environmental influencers (EIs). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyse quantitative data while thematic analysis helped to examine qualitative data. Generally, results from the descriptive statistical analysis and regression analysis through the Ordinary Least of Squares (OLS) model, showed that participatory inclusiveness was evident and affected by the PVC actors’ ability to access new knowledge, existing governance policies, and availability of extension services. The study recommends that individual actors in the PVC should have access to new and appropriate knowledge, chain leaders should enact and pursue good governance policies and the Government of Uganda (GoU) should empower and deploy its extension workers with the appropriate skills, competences, expertise, and necessary tools and equipment to effectively assist PVC actors, especially the small-holders. Development partners like Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) need to facilitate effective dissemination of information and influence policies and regulations relevant to PVC. Keywords – Inclusiveness, SW Uganda, Potato Value Chain, Smallholder Farmers