Kenya is one of the major horticulture exporters in Africa, with the Mount Kenya Region as a hotspot of commercial horticulture farms. However, there is also an enormous number of small scale farmers living in this region, producing food for either self-consumption or the supply of local to national markets.

The goal of my study was to do a Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of the different Food Systems present in the North-West Mount Kenya Region. Representative products of each Food System were followed along their value chain from the moment seeds were purchased until crops were consumed. In the study kilo-calories served as functional unit to make the Food Systems and their environmental performance comparable. Factors under investigation regarding the environmental performance of the Food Systems were the energy use, not only in terms of fossil energy but also of human energy, the material input such as water for irrigation or agrochemicals, and the waste production.

The focus of this presentation shall be the comparison of the agro-industrial Food System and the local Food System of rural small scale farmers. The comparison shows, that whilst the Agro-industrial System has much more inputs and energy use for the transport of these inputs, the major cause of environmental impacts in the Local Food System was misuse of agrochemicals.

In the North-West Region of Mount Kenya horticultural companies produce food for export markets. My in-depth anthropological research of such a horticultural production company looks at formal and informal rules and regulations that regulate how food is produced at the selected company and which social, economic and ecological impacts this has. By looking at power relations, narratives, effects of national and international laws and policies, product standards and certifications I explore how these rules and regulations are formed and negotiated, and who benefits in which way from the thereby formed formal and informal institutional settings. While the management of the company is expected to have a rather strong bargaining position, it considers itself constricted between consumer demands, national and international regulations and different forms of resistance by local laborers. On the other side, laborers with little bargaining power and accordingly unfavorable working conditions can benefit from working for such a company if they find ways to deal with these conditions and earning cash as starting capital for other forms of income.

Oil palm is an important cash crop in West Africa. But the promotion and research on oil palm value chains has so far mainly focused on smallholders' incorporation in the value chains, e.g. through outgrower schemes, and larger scale industrial development. However, different artisanal oil palm products play a significant role in Ghanaian diets which have traditionally been dependent on oil palm as a subsistence crop and the artisanal or small scale production of palm oil in Ghana today exists in an interrelationship with the large scale plantation and processing sector. Therefore this paper examines the material and organisational configuration of the small scale oil palm value chain emanating from a field study area in the Kwaebibirem District in the Eastern Region in Ghana. It is argued that the interrelationships between the large scale sector and the small scale sector play an important role for the development of the small scale value chain as well as productive linkages to small industries in the settlements. The case provides valuable insights to how rural economic development is spurred through 'unintentional' linkages between formal and informal sectors in Ghana. It is argued that policymakers should take these linkages into consideration in future policies on agricultural and rural development.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, conflicts have devastated the distribution infrastructure such as roads and bridges, which has stymied the rural economy. The current state of rural-urban distribution processes must be determined to rehabilitate local communities. However, the perspective of such determinations is unclear. This research, therefore, describes and analyzes conflict impacts on rural-urban distribution, periodic market functioning, and indigenous distributional activities based on qualitative and GPS data collected from an extensive area survey. Observing 500 km of main roadways from rural villages to the capital of Orientale Province by motorbike, I present a study of rural-urban distribution. Today, a mass of rural residents travel to periodic markets through forests and engage in long-distance peddling to connect with the urban economy while petty traders advance their commercial activities. Using waterborne transportation, such as dugout canoes, traders sustain urban-rural commodity interexchange. The collapse of the pre-conflict distribution system has caused the periodic markets to become influential regional economic nodes. These observations indicate that local people reorganize alternative distribution systems utilizing indigenous knowledge and ecological environments.

There are women as a bridge from rural to urban, from small-scale farmers to processors or consumers so called market queens or 'ohemma.' Market queens are not just traders of agriculture products within food system in Ghana, they are rather a female-led institution. Market queens who are leaders of sections of the market such as yam, maize, or tomato sections are known for controlling market price and supply side. Generally, these queen mothers are elected by the traders and have the direct influence on producers by supporting small-scale farmers in rural areas as well as consumers in big cities.

Among diverse agricultural products, this paper deals with Ghanaian's important staple food maize and its market queens. Maize is particularly for the approximately 1 million small-scale households engaged in the primary production. It is one of the most important crops for Ghana's agricultural sector and for food security.