Workbook
Level 2 · Understanding Value Chains
Work through these exercises with your own product, market and numbers. Review your answers with a mentor, a farmer group or a business adviser. Print this page to fill it in by hand.
Exercises in this level
Part 1 · What a value chain is
Exercise 2.1 · Draw your product's chain
- Choose one product you know. Write it at the top of a page.
- Draw the steps from inputs to the final customer. Add boxes if there are steps not shown in the example.
- Write the name or kind of actor at each step (for example 'smallholder farmer', 'local trader').
- Mark with a star the step you know least about.
Part 2 · Who does what, and who earns what
Exercise 2.2 · Roles and rewards
- For each actor in your chain, write one thing they do and one risk they carry.
- Write which actor you think has the most bargaining power and why.
- Write one question you would like to ask an actor you have not talked to before.
Part 3 · Where value is lost
Exercise 2.3 · A loss walk
- Go through your chain step by step and ask, 'What is lost here: product, quality, time or money?'
- Mark the step where you think the largest loss happens, and write how you could check it.
- Write one low-cost change that could reduce that loss.
Part 4 · Finding opportunities in the chain
Exercise 2.4 · My opportunity
- From your loss walk and role notes, choose one opportunity in the chain.
- Write who would pay for it and why.
- Write the smallest test you could do in the next month.
- Write one thing that could make the idea fail, and what you would do about it.