Impact of institutional support to smallholder horticultural farmers on their access to high-value markets in Mashonaland West Province of Zimbabwe

This study's purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of market aggregators (cooperatives) in reducing institutional and informational transaction costs for smallholder horticulture farmers (SHFs) participating in high-value markets in Zimbabwe. The design used a cross-sectional survey of 192 SHFs in Mashonaland West Province, analysed using Chi-square (chi2) tests of goodness of fit. The findings confirm that aggregator linkage significantly improves SHFs' access to Food Safety and Quality (FSQ) standards (chi2(3) = 125.112, p < 0.001) and timely price information (\chi2(3) = 78.76, p < 0.001), thus mitigating information asymmetry. However, the stringent application of FSQ standards is a major source of governance friction, eroding farmer trust when produce is rejected. Research implications suggest using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to model the recursive relationship between compliance and trust. Practical implications call for mandated transparent grading protocols to manage the trust-compliance trade-off, investment in shared post-harvest infrastructure, and the integration of ICT for real-time market information dissemination.