Can high-quality vanilla help reduce poverty in Madagascar?

Methods

Summary

Commodity chains were first defined by Hopkins and Wallerstein to describe "network[s] of labor and production processes whose end result is a finished commodity” (1986:159). Since it  has been applied to “webs of power relations” (Ribot, 1998; Bernstein, 1984) and disenfranchisement of actors along the chain. In my research in Madagascar, I will highlight the use of a commodity chain analysis in mapping access across spatial and temporal nodes of power in an environment of social and economic inequality. I will be anlaysing different nodes of commodity production from production to consumption.

For my methodology, I will be surveying Malagasy and foreign traders and producers. I will also interview different classes of collectors and laborers involved in the chains and those involved in the process of prospecting for genetic resources coming from different academic or professional circles. Participant observation will be conducted in the work venues of storehouses and plantations. 

These spaces of observation include: (a) sites of plant collection; (b) areas for processing and
transportation of plant material (i.e., cold chains, packaging, sorting, storing, contracting, etc.). Specific sites of data collection also include small and large vanilla production houses.

Challenges

Working in rural areas of Madagascar can be logistical nightmare. Roads can be extremely difficult to navigate especially during the cyclone season. Research ethics protocols will be followed in accordance with Lancaster University. Hard to achieve access with industry will be provided by the Pentland Centre of Sustainable Business and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development at Lancaster University.

Pre Analysis Plan

I will administer 90 structured questionnaires involving socio-economic and productoin in two selected rural sites from each of the three case study areas (six rural sites total). Beyond household demographic characteristics, questionnaires will include information concerning access to land and livelihood resources, land tenure security, means of income, and profits made from vanilla. To obtain a representative group, a stratified random sample will be used to recruit the questionnaire informants.

All interview (including Phase I) and focus group data will be thematically coded using NVivo qualitative analysis software to elucidate a comprehensive set of findings, linking rural and institutional perspectives on production dynamics and environmental change.  In this phase, I will help train two Malagasy post-graduate and one undergraduate student (all attempts will be made to recruit women and diversity students) in geospatial technologies, qualitative, and quantitative analysis. Outputs will be analyzed and disseminated through a network of research policy and development organizations, cultivated over 15 years of research experience in Madagascar and the developing world. And finally, to enhance international collaboration, preliminary findings of this phase will be made available to researchers in varied social and natural science departments at the University of Antananarivo and other policy institutions working in Madagascar and the US