Agriculture Value Chain Finance in Uganda: A Brief Review of Literature

Liberalization of global trade has presented an opportunity for sub-Saharan African economies to integrate into the regional and global value chains, secure stable markets for their agri-commodities, and increase the much needed private sector investment in the agriculture sector. However, for most African economies, realizing the opportunities associated with the integration of local agriculture value chains into the global supply chain has been more of a pipe dream. Moreover, the nature and organisation of agriculture value chains in most African countries, and the relevance of value chain integration in catalyzing access to finance through facilitating agriculture value chain finance remains largely unclear. This is in part due to the fact that, research evidence in this area is not only scarce but also remains fragmented across agriculture and access to finance related studies. This article briefly reviews the existing research literature relating to the relevance of agriculture value chain integration and agriculture value chain finance in the context of access to finance for the agriculture sector players in Uganda. The paper presents literature review findings, and identifies the knowledge gap which may be addressed in future research.