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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that agricultural commodity value chain development using multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) can fast-track improvement in the livelihoods of rural farming households. With the view that such partnerships can raise farmers’ incomes, the study uses the case of the organic pineapple (OP) value chain in Ntungamo, Western Uganda, to understand the governance features that hold the value chain partners together, to analyse the costs and margins to the participating farmers, to identify opportunities for demand-driven upgrading of the farmers’ skills and knowledge, and the role that partnerships play in such upgrading.

The study uses the qualitative tools of value chain analysis: value chain maps of stakeholders, processes and support services of the OP value chain, and a quantitative tool to analyse costs and margins to the participating farmers. Interviews were conducted with key informants from the OP innovation platform, and survey data collected for the planting season, February–July, 2014, across three farmer categories of certified organic, conventional, and farmers not participating in the innovation platform.

Careful selection of partnerships to develop the value chain is found to be critical. Partners to involve should be those that enable the upgrading of farmers’ knowledge, skills and technologies to position them for better markets. Partners should also include those that enable the improvement of margins to the farmers and efficiency of the value chain. The strategic MSPs should be bound by formal contracts, to ensure stable relationships in the value chain and hence sustainable market access for the farmers.

Although carried out on a specific value chain in a specific local context, this is not likely to limit the applicability of the findings to commodity value chains in a range of local contexts.

The study fulfils the need to highlight the role that stakeholder partnerships can play in value chain development and how they can be sustained by governance and institutional arrangements.

This paper explores the institutional challenges and opportunities in Fiji's integration into the global value chain. Fiji is naturally endowed with coconut palms across its many islands. However, the coconut sector remains rudimentary with little value-addition. Coconut products of high-value are now being produced and exported throughout the world. While many coconut producing countries have benefitted from this coconut demand surge, Fiji has been unable to benefit from the international market.

This study utilizes a mixed-methods approach to analyze the challenges and opportunities. First, an analysis is done on a macro-level at the link between institutional quality and Fiji's export of coconut products. Then, primary data is collected with semi-structured interviews with key stakeholder groups in regions of Fiji. The goal is to gain an understanding of the perceived challenges and opportunities from each actor.

The empirical results show that institutional quality matters for Fiji's coconut exports. Increased scores in the government effectiveness and voice and accountability indicators enhance coconut exports from Fiji, suggesting that domestic institutions play an important role. Interviews with key actors reveal that communications among each stakeholder group are fragmented. The main institutional actors and the producers have different perceptions of the industry's challenges, thus resulting in different ideas on how to address the issues.

This study is limited by the data availability of coconut production and trade volume of more specific products. Furthermore, due to the transportation and weather constraints during our visit to Fiji, certain parts of the island were not accessible.

This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to assess a specific case study.