Do Medium‐scale Farms Improve Market Access Conditions for Zambian Smallholders?

Abstract

This study is motivated by the need to understand how the rise of medium-scale farms in Africa is affecting small-scale farm households. Survey evidence over the past decade has shown a dramatic rise in the prevalence of 'medium' sized farms between 5 and 100 hectares, but smaller farms still constitute the vast majority of farms and rural households. Prior evidence highlights a co-evolution between the concentration of landholdings, surplus production volumes, and entry of larger traders into the market. Whether these changes tend to impact on smallholders negatively, crowding them out of markets, for example, or positively, potentially opening new marketing channels, is an empirical question. Using a multi-stage model for maize market participation in Zambia, we find that in areas where medium-scale farms are growing, even the smaller farms are becoming more likely to sell maize, more likely to sell to the private sector, more likely to sell to larger traders, and expected sales amongst sellers are higher. On balance, the growth of medium-scale farms and large-scale traders seems to have positive spillover effects on nearby smallholder marketing options.

Emerging Medium-Scale Tenant Farming, Gig Economies, and the COVID-19 Disruption: The Case of Commercial Vegetable Clusters in Ethiopia

“…For example, while smallholder agriculture has been a defining characteristic for most of Africa, there is now increasing evidence in a number of countries on the emergence of medium- and large-scale farmers who increasingly see potential in agriculture as a source of profits and livelihoods, as these farmers satisfy rapidly growing urban demand and benefit from urban residents increasing ability and willingness to pay for food (Jayne et al 2016 , 2019 ; Sitko and Jayne 2014 ). Although there is an emerging literature on these larger-scale farmers, there are only a few authors (e.g., Wineman et al 2020 ; Burke et al 2020 ) who have looked at their link with rural transformation processes overall, their role in reshaping rural economies through service and labor contracts, and the possibly important spillovers of this agricultural transformation on these economies more broadly.…”

Co-designing global target-seeking scenarios: a cross-scale participatory process for capturing multiple perspectives on pathways to sustainability

“…The divergent theme "Actors involved in agriculture in the future" was linked to the issue of land distribution and concentration, particularly the fate of small-scale farmers in the future (branching point "Economy -Actors in Agriculture"). This issue has been highly societally relevant and encumbered with strongly contesting visions, ranging from perspectives favouring medium to large-scale, market-oriented mechanized farming to the agroecological movement focusing on peasant's livelihoods (Meyfroidt, 2017;Samberg et al, 2016;Cabral et al, 2016;Jayne et al, 2016;Kuyper and Struik, 2014;Scoones et al, 2018;Burke et al, 2020;Nicholls and Altieri, 2018). Although recent literature has disputed the understanding of a linear relationship between productivity and property size, calling for more nuanced and region-specific considerations (Peters, 2013;Collier and Dercon, 2014;Kweka and Ouma, 2020;Rada and Fuglie, 2019), plurality in this theme has been generally absent from current global scenarios.…”

“…Although recent literature has disputed the understanding of a linear relationship between productivity and property size, calling for more nuanced and region-specific considerations (Peters, 2013;Collier and Dercon, 2014;Kweka and Ouma, 2020;Rada and Fuglie, 2019), plurality in this theme has been generally absent from current global scenarios. In Africa, current trends indicate that medium-scale farms (10-100 ha in Africa) are likely to soon become the dominant form of farming in many African countries, with disputed perspectives on the economic benefits for smaller farmers (Jayne et al, 2016;Burke, Jayne, and Sitko, 2020). There is also an ongoing process of large-scale land acquisitions which might substantially alter the land distribution in the region (Bottazzi et al, 2016;Oberlack et al, 2016).…”

The role of large traders in driving sustainable agricultural intensification in smallholder farms: Evidence from Kenya

“…Table 1 shows the proportion of these traders jumping from about 2% (23 households) in 2001 to 10% (124 households) in 2010. To minimize errors in the measurement of the variable, adequate training was provided to the enumerators to help the respondents identify the trader‐types using a three check criteria; the volume of grain bought, whether the trader comes to buy for himself or uses buying agents, and lastly, whether the trader operates under a company name (Burke et al., 2019). It is also worth noting that results from a study carried out in 2016 on LGTs in Kenya to understand their involvement in the smallholder grain markets (Sitko et al., 2017) mostly correspond to this paper findings and increases our confidence in the correct identification of these market actors by the farmers.…”

“…This study examines how new marketing actors in Kenya's grain value chains have affected the incentives and wherewithal of farmers to intensify their production patterns. These large grain traders (LGTs) typically do not travel to villages themselves to buy grain but buy directly from farmers at buying points in towns, hire agents who bear the LGT company name to travel to the villages to aggregate surpluses, or buy from smaller “satellite” traders without a formal affiliation (Burke et al., 2019). There is a dearth of evidence on the implications of these changes in the agro‐food industry on the production systems, especially in the adoption of SAIPs in SSA.…”