Bargaining Power
With respect to the portion of the value in the value chain that the people of Nnindye receive, they currently earn just above break-even wages after costs of inputs, food, and other very basic living and working expenses. The problem exists in the structure of the value chain of each crop grown in Uganda. Most rural farmers operate on smaller farms of roughly 1 to 2 hectares. The problem with this size of plot is that everyone can produce this amount because it is so small. As a result, in the more impoverished rural areas, there are as many as 100 farmers trying to sell their produce to the few transporters who come through the area to buy matoke on their way to Kampala. While these transporters earn high enough margins to make an average Ugandan farmer's annual wage in a three week span, none of this value is translated to the farmer's margins for production. The reason is that the farmers have zero bargaining power given that there are so many other suppliers in their village. If one person complains about receiving too low of prices for their matoke, the transporter will go to the next person and buy from them.
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