IF African scholars were more interested in studying informal economies and territorial markets, by now, there would be abundant literature on these important post-colonial institutions.
Instead, African scholars are more interested in studying formal institutions and citing textbooks and journals from the Global North.
The absence of books on districts like Binga does not mean there is no knowledge there. By overlooking local knowledge, scholars risk becoming irrelevant to the communities they study.
Abundant gray literature remains untapped
There has also been a lot of gray literature in the form of research and information on particular disjointed projects but such literature has not been comprehensive enough to show the role of territorial markets in African food systems.
For instance, many value-chain studies have revealed what is needed to improve African lives through territorial markets but such literature has not positively influenced investment into territorial markets.
This is shown by how investment has continued to be directed at primary production with no resources going to market infrastructure and preservation of indigenous food.
Many African governments and development agencies continue to commission million-dollar agricultural projects, focusing mainly on production and provision of inputs when market failure is rampant due to lack of attention and support to territorial markets.
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Literature on how national business models like the Grain Marketing Board, processing companies and export models can be linked with territorial markets is largely missing.
Little documentation that exists is only aligned to formal companies while territorial markets are treated as a separate economy.
As if that is not enough, many programmes championed by governments and development organisations are not documented so that they become part of literature in the form of lessons that can be translated to transformational pathways.
Such literature includes annual reports and evaluation reports. If territorial markets received the same recognition accorded parastatals, important lessons and strategies would be drawn for use in developing and strengthening territorial markets and the relationship between formal and informal economies.
Missing value chains in gray literature
Where some siloed territorial markets’ studies have been conducted, it has been for different purposes not related to influencing policy.
For instance, some of the literature is in the form of short surveys for purposes of marketing the economy or country at international level but not sustained connection with grassroots experience.
Such once-off surveys only cherry-pick what is worthy displaying internationally and ignore the other side of informal economies and territorial markets like areas in need of improvement.
On the other hand, most of the existing siloed studies do not include key value chain actors in territorial markets such as smallholder farmers, women, youth, traders, vendors and low-income consumers.
Much of the information in value chain assessments follow formal supply chain corridors, ending up in supermarkets, hotels, exports and processing.
What does absence of literature mean?
In the absence of relevant literature, decision-makers fail to understand the operations and structures of African territorial markets and informal economies.
If there is no literature, policy- makers will not know if there is a solid relationship between formal and informal economies.
For instance, is there any relationship between territorial markets and other enterprises? If so, why?
The contribution of territorial markets is not only limited to actors within those markets but extends to outside actors whether food or non-food related small and medium enterprises.
This is critical in bringing out horizontal and vertical integration within territorial markets as another major contribution to equitable and sustainable contribution through other sectors.
When evidence and literature prove that territorial markets do not live in isolation, it becomes possible to mobilise targeted support from government, development organisations and the private sector so that territorial markets don’t continue to be neglected or orphaned to the benefit of the formal sector which, apparently, does not create more employment than the informal economy.
