Partnership and capacity building in the date sector in Tunisia: the contribution of support organizations

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand how support organizations promote the structuring of the agricultural value chain through partnerships and capacity building of the various links in the chain.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is exploratory and qualitative, based on ten semi-structured interviews with the main public support organizations related to the date sector in Tunisia.

Findings

The results showed that the support organizations of the Tunisian date sector do not share the same vision of the priorities to be strengthened to promote the export of dates in Tunisia.

Research limitations/implications

Reviewing the coordination mechanisms between the support organizations is important in order to improve the governance of the value chain and to reinforce the capacity of the operators in the date value chain.

Originality/value

Public support organizations are important actors in agricultural value chains as these organizations implement agricultural policies. Assessing these organizations' contribution to capacity building of chain links is an innovative approach to detecting organizational dysfunction in agricultural value chains in developing countries.

Citation

Rouached, L., Loukil, F. and Boughzala, Y. (2023), "Partnership and capacity building in the date sector in Tunisia: the contribution of support organizations", Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-10-2022-0216