Insights into smallholder capacity for agricultural commercialisation: Evidence from four African contexts

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, the agricultural economics and development literature has amply highlighted success stories of smallholder farmers in developing countries, illustrating their increased engagement and integration with markets, in other words, higher rates of commercialisation. Yet, this seeming ‘success’ should not detract from the large proportion of farmers who, through engaging in high-value market chains, face high risks that often limit the extent of their engagement. This study, across four African contexts in Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, strives to better understand smallholder participation in agricultural commercialisation. Using new detailed cross-sectional household-level data, from the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) consortium, collected over 2017–2018, we analyse assets as a determining factor for localised patterns smallholder commercialisation. Applying asset-based thresholds, we capture commercialisation ‘capacity’—an indicator of the household’s commercialisation potential and ability to respond to risks. Despite the possibility to increase commercialisation as well as institutional arrangements that may reduce risk, such as contract farming, benefits from linkages with medium-scale farmers or returns from specific crop types, we find that households may yet be constrained by lower capacity. Hence, the need for targeted support for those at the margins and with limited assets; with the most pronounced and significant constraints for lower capacity households in study areas in Tanzania. These results can better inform development policies for agriculture where it is important to be able to specifically target households rather than a one size fits all approach.

Food Security and Nutrition Inequities in the Context of Agricultural Commercialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Narrative Literature Review

“…The SSA literature to date has tended to focus most on smallholder commercialisation given the central focus of many national governments on the role of smallholder agriculture in pro-poor poverty reduction. This is also in part due to the dominance of small farm production in the poorest and most foodinsecure areas of SSA where farmers face multiple barriers to market engagement (Saha, Sabates-Wheeler and Thompson 2021). The focus has shifted slightly in recent years towards multiple production models as there is increasing recognition of the diverse trajectories farmers undertake.…”

Agricultural Technology, Food Security and Nutrition: Insight From Oil Palm Smallholders in Ghana

“…Data were collected through face-toface interviews with the household head or another adult family member with relevant knowledge about the questions when the head was not available. A team of enumerators was trained and supervised by the senior researchers (Saha, Sabates-Wheeler and Thompson, 2021). Source: Authors' own…”

Explaining the Weakness of Associational Life in Oil Palm Growing Communities in Southwestern Ghana

“…However, after over a century of commercialised cultivation of oil palm production, the expected improvements in the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the national economy have not materialised. The reasons for this are multifarious, ranging from historical and political reasons that inhibit the effectiveness of policies targeting the sector (Teye and Torvikey, 2018;Asante, 2021), to communityand household-level factors that explain why some smallholder households are unable to realise the welfare-enhancing potential of participating in oil palm commercialisation (Dzanku et al, 2020;Saha, Sabates-Wheeler and Thompson, 2021).…”

“…Ghana's highly commercialised oil palm value chain could catalyse national economic development, and provide a pathway out of poverty for smallholders engaged in the cultivation of the crop. However, this potential cannot be automatically realised, and studies suggest that wealthier smallholders or those with more asset holdings are better able to reap the benefits of agricultural commercialisation (Dzanku et al, 2020;Saha, Sabates-Wheeler and Thompson, 2021). For farmers without the material wherewithal to profitably 6 CONCLUSION…”