Paper short abstract:

This paper examines 'value chain' approaches to dairy development in Tanzania. Farmers have not embraced practices that philanthropic funders think they should to maximise profit from their cows, but some have adopted a 'value chain' approach to philanthropy itself instead

Paper long abstract:

The latest iteration of dairy development in Tanzania is a philanthropically-funded initiative that adopts a 'value chain' approach to boost smallholder farmers' livelihoods by enabling them to sell milk to companies who process it for sale to wealthy urban consumers. This involves training aimed at transforming farmers' mindsets as well as husbandry techniques, in order that they can grasp the opportunities of the 'dairy value chain'. Evidence of positive impact in the South West of the country is limited (so far). This paper asks what an ethnographic approach might look like that is not grounded in the critique that 'value chain' thinking in dairy development fails to understand the local context and therefore fails to achieve its aims. It suggests instead that some smallholders themselves adopt something like a 'value chain' approach in their engagement with dairy development, not in their pursuit of dairy as a viable business but in their view of philanthropy itself as a value chain that they can access and benefit from. This insight offers an original critical lens through which to view philanthropy for dairy development