Smallholders in a rapidly changing world?
African Agriculture in 50 Years
Paper by Paul Collier and Stefan Dercon
June 2009. At the FAO Expert Meeting on How to Feed the World in 2050, Collier/Dercon question as the evidence base for smallholders as engines for growth and poverty reduction and argue for a much more open-minded approach to different modes of production.
Article Summary
For economic development to succeed in Africa in the next 50 years, African agriculture will have to change beyond recognition. Production will have to have increased massively, but also labour productivity, requiring a vast reduction in the proportion of the population engaged in agriculture and a large move out of rural areas. Climate change is likely to require an acceleration of this process, with commensurate faster and further migration of large populations.
Collier/Dercon ask how this can be squared with a continuing commitment to smallholder agriculture as the main route for growth in African agriculture and for poverty reduction. They question the evidence base for an exclusive focus on smallholders, and argue for a much more open-minded approach to different modes of production.
Smallholders are heterogeneous and there is scope for large scale farmers as commercial enterprises, often in interaction with smaller scale farmers using institutional frameworks that encourage vertical integration and scale economies in processing and marketing.
The authors also question the case for smallholders as engines for growth and poverty reduction. In their view, the evidence is far more mixed than the exclusive emphasis upon the smallholder approach would lead us to believe. Indeed, much of the focus on smallholders may actually hinder large scale poverty reduction. Fast labour productivity growth is what is needed for large scale productivity reduction but smallholders and the institutions to support and sustain them are weak agents for labour productivity growth in Africa.
In the eyes of Collier/Dercon the current policy focus ignores one key necessity for labour productivity growth: successful migration out of agriculture and rural areas. They consider the recent African vogue for ‘superfarms’: the emergence of investments in vast tracks of land of thousands of hectares for food crop agriculture focused on exports, such as to the Middle East. Collier/Dercon argue that, while commercialization of African agriculture is desirable, the superfarms were fundamentally geopolitical rather than commercial and not an appropriate vehicle for encouraging growth in African societies.
Comments
Readers have left 4 comments.  4. MrGundani kikitee, UnregisteredSolutions to smallholder Agriculture
Some of the problems aced by the smallholder farmers include access to formal credit due to lack of collateral,limited resources for production, lack of capital to purchase new technologies and inputs needed for production (hybrid seed, fertilizers, chemicals for pest and disease control e.t.c), poor soils and unreliable rainfall as a result of being settled in the marginal areas, limited extension service et cetera. the problems are so many that poverty alleviation would require maximum effort from all stakeholders including the governments and private sector. with reference to Zimbabwe, below are some of the solutions that can be considered to assist these poor farmers in improving their production.
provision of rural financial markets which offer both production and consumption loans and also encouraging savings, input credit schemes, contract farming, assist farmers interested in irrigation, provide extension services, infrastructural development through programs such as food for work, provide sustainable agricultural training, encourage the growing of short season and drought resistant crops, encourage the use of moisture conservation methods such as minimum tillage and mulching, provide markets for produce, assist farmers with advice and resources in fundraising projects such as poultry and piggery to make sure that they produce something in the off-season period.
These are some of the measures that can be taken to assist smallholder farmers. There is therefore, need for investment for all these to be brought into action. The major pre-requisite is a government with the major priority of serving the people (which is lacking in the country). 3. Re: Challenges in Smallholder AgricultureRuturaj Pattanaik, Unregistered Small holder agriculture is contributing towards food of India. They are considered as farmers as they take up farming activities. Their contribution is less undermined. Youths and prople of productive age group hardly prefer to take up farming as profession, where as it was occupation. It is the lasts option for the youths. Direct Public spending/investment is less. Less or no institutions available of their own to support their actions at the door steps in time. Increasing input costs though subsidised. Less efforts to reduce the input costs. Formal and informal credit support is only availabel for production. There is no credit support for housing and others as promoted for others those working in organised sector. Less infrastructure support available for storage, preservation and processing to gain better price for their produces. 2. Climate Change andadaptationGizex Gizai, Unregistered In the south end district of Malawi called Nsanjde have an opportunity to adaopt climate change through the plantation of moringa and neem threes which can provide social and economic benefit to these vulnerable farmers.
Farmers can make medicinal powders from these trees and then sell them.
The farmers can make alot products from these cluding soap, glycerine etc of which can also be sold.
At the same time the trees can assisting in the sinking of carborn dioxide from the atmosphere.
Currently the main challenge is to find dependable markets for these productts 1. Challenges in Smallholder AgricultureInternational Institute for Sust, Unregistered For anyone interested in further analysis or study of smallholder agriculture, check out this online course "Challenges in Smallholder Agriculture": http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/IISD/courses/Agriculture.html
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