Value chain management and the competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farms in Uganda

Abstract

In today's competitive business, most of the firms increased focus on delivering more valuable products compared to its competitors. This forces value chain management to be more responsive in creating competitive advantage. Therefore A study titled “Value Chain Management and the Competitiveness of Smallholder Plantation Forests farms : A Case study of smallholder Plantation Eucalyptus Tree Farms in Kassanda Sub county- Mubende district was conducted whose aim was to determine the extent to which value chain management influences competitiveness of smallholder forest plantation farms. The study was guided by the following research objectives which include: (1) To establish the effect of internal firms capabilities on the competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farms in Uganda, (2) To establish the effect of coordination among value chain actors on the competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farms in Uganda. (3)To examine effect of sources of financing on the competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farms in Uganda. Data was obtained from the selected tree farmers in Kassanda Sub County, Mubende District and key informants from Ministry of Water and Environment, National Forestry Authority. A total of 118 respondents from a population of 150 participated in the study through filling the questionnaires and answering the interview guide. The respondents were selected using simple random sampling and purposive sampling was undertaken for key informant interviews. Data collected, grouped, scrutinized and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively using statistical Package for Social Scientists 17.0(SPSS). Descriptive statistics of frequency percentages, tables and figures were the basis of quantitative data whereas qualitative data was interpreted by substantiating the explanations from the respondents’ open responses. From the correlation analysis, there is a positive and significant relationship between value chain management and the competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farms and the Regression results confirmed this relationship when they revealed that internal firm capabilities influence competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farms by 30.8%, coordination among value chain actors influenced competitiveness by 27.9% and finally sources of financing which stood out to be of greatest influence by 60.4%. Basing on the findings recommends the researcher recommends that future studies should be made to ascertain how the value chain financing of plantation forestry for smallholder tree farmers should be enhanced as it has been identified to have the greatest influence on the competitiveness of smallholder plantation forest farm