Hi all,
Here is the summarized input we recently received on topic#3 "Strategies used by small farms to overcome challenges – a view of the past”. If anything, it shows the diversity of our participants: from Italy, via Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon and Morocco to India and Somalia... !
Q3.1/4 - Question “3.1: Identify the three main challenges which small farms, in your region, have faced in the recent past.”
1/ From: Diana Naikoba <[log in to unmask]> (Germany/Uganda)
I am Diana Naikoba - MSc Agricultural Economics Student at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart (Germany)
The main challenges faced by small farmers in Uganda:
1. Unreliable rainfall due to changing climate pattern predisposing the farmers to poverty and food insecurity
While this is a problem affecting farmers generally, small farms are more vulnerable because most of them depend on these farms as their source of livelihood. Uganda was in the past blessed with fertile soils and on average adequate amounts of rainfall. Small farms have always depended on natural rainfall. The unpredictability of the onset of the rainy season has made it hard for farmers to timely plant their crops. In addition to this, the rains are more often than not inadequate and yet many if not all have no means of watering their fields artificially. As a result, crop failure occurs and yet many farmers do not have secure off-farm incomes. This has made small farmers vulnerable to periodic food insecurity and increasingly poor.
2. Poor market linkages and post-harvest processing
Smallholder farmers are mostly in remote areas. In spite of the recent efforts to improve road density in rural areas, farmers are still not directly linked to the markets. They depend on middlemen who literally reap them off. selling through middlemen earns them very low price from their produce. In addition, farmers tend to sell just after harvesting because they do not have means of processing their harvest and prolonging the shelf life of their products. This makes them sell under pressure earning even lesser profits.
3. Lack of access to authentic inputs.
Ugandan markets tend to be flooded with counterfeit products. This includes agro-inputs. Purchasing these fake products derails farmers from investing in such ventures if they are unsure of what they buy on markets.
2/ From: Mohamed Osman Abdulkadir <[log in to unmask]> (Somalia)
My name is Mohamed Osman Abdulkadir, I am an agriculturist, researcher and co-founder of SOMIA-Somali Institute of Agriculture, a newly opened
academic and research institute in Mogadishu.
On the question of identifying the three main challenges which small farms, in your region, have faced in the recent past:
1-lack of access to finance
The majority of the small farmers in the
country face lots of challenges like the cost of land preparation,
labour payment, pest control and mechanization cost, having little
money from the crop products sold on local market, these aren’t enough
to support all facilities needed in the field and farm lands,
sometimes they sell out their land because of the lend they didn’t pay
so that’s one challenge. Also there aren’t any investment banks or
micro credit institutions which provide loans to small farms for their
activities.
2-Water scarcity
Somalia is geographically arid or semi-arid country
with two river flows from Ethiopian highlands. In the past years there
has been huge reduction of rainfall and precipitation in the country
but the most challenging is the Shabelle River which dries out in the
many times in the two years which affects millions of small-scale
farmers along shabelle river. This low supply of water causes larger
loss of crop production and most of small scale farmers aren’t able to
dig wells in their filed due to lower economy.
3- Lack of marketing (market access) and poor transportation
Local and international markets are the destination for very farmer’s goods or products, since
the collapse of central government in Somalia, all infrastructures
were heavily damaged and destructed including local vegetable and
fruit markets.
Somali products like bananas were used to export to Europe and Middle
East for its taste and grade but after civil war, Somali bananas
didn’t get any international market since then.
Transportation is also problematic to the small farms, rough and
heavily destructed roads are causing much harm to the Somali small
farmers to bring the product from farm to the market easier, sometimes
it takes many hours with products getting invested with pathogens
because of no health environment.
3/ From: Onima V.T. <[log in to unmask]> (India)
I am Onima V. T., Research Officer at the Center for Research on Innovation and Science Policy (CRISP), India
The findings presented here, are based on my study in South Gujarat region of India.
One of the major challenges pointed out by the small farmers was that they lack of proper base price for the crop.
The agricultural commodities prices are controlled by the government and they are not revised or not implemented as per the input cost resulting low profitability of farmers. Farmers indicated their inability to negotiate best price for the crop let the market or agents determine prices for their produce; expressed lack of procurement of farm products during bumper harvest due to overhang of excess supply in market affects income and investment in next crop season. Further, farmers indicated lack of minimum support price for vegetables and other crops. These perishable crops during glut in the market are sold at throw away prices due to absence of cold storage and post harvest processing facilities. Farmers are not even provided with enough money to cover the margin of cost of cultivation. Also the manufacturers of industrial and various other consumer products enjoy the right to fix price for their products and are sold at maximum retail price. But the same right was denied to the growers of food grains, fruits, vegetables and all such commodities grown in agricultural fields and farms. They felt government so far hasn’t taken step to at least fix scientific price for the agricultural produce considering the cost of cultivation.
Second major challenge faced by farmers was labour problem.
The farmers complained severe shortage of labour during peak seasons for operations like sowing, harvesting in the fields, followed by migration of workforce away from agriculture to urban centres coupled with government schemes like MGNREGA which have facilitated migration of labour to other segments has resulted in labour shortage and consequent escalation of cost of cultivation. Furthermore, farmers expressed agricultural labourers lack skills in carrying out agricultural activities. The skills traditionally required to be farm labour are no longer sufficient. Also farmers reported about low quality work done by agicultural labourers. All educated folks are engaged in other enterprises and hesitate to be in farm labour thereby migrated labourers almost 50 km away from respective villages are engaged in agriculture work. Even though provided with necessary facilities they maintains low mentality and work less for more labour days and wages expecting farmers to be rich enough to pay them. The increase in food subsidy and access to cheap food grains turned labour group lazy and work less efficiently or spend the additional amount on things like alcohol, betting etc. All these factors have enabled labourers to demand higher wage rates from farmers and in places for shorter working hours. As a result, agricultural wages are increasing every year at a rather high rate and in turn increasing the overall cost of farming with no significant increase in returns.
Third major challenge stated by farmers is its "expensive nature".
According to the small farmer's calculation, agriculture is expensive, risky and requires back breaking work which does not even bring enough standard of living. Agriculture as an occupation is challenging because, inputs are more expensive and produce prices are lower, making food production, by and large, non-competitive. Farmers are wedged with more hard work load, but earning less compared to other jobs. Farmers are stuck in a cycle of producing more, but earning less, the farm gate price - the price farmers were paid for their produce was less than the cost of production. Mismatch between income and expenditure the prices received by the farmers for their produce are compared with the prices they pay for the consumer goods it was observed that the farming community is facing an erosion of their real incomes due to the lower growth of prices of commodities they produce as compared to the prices of consumer goods.
4/ From: Akpo Akintoye <[log in to unmask]> (Nigeria)
My name is Akpo Akintoye. I am an organic vegetable farm owner in the Gwagwalada Area Council of the FCT, Abuja, Nigeria.
These are some of the challenges faced by our small farmers:
a. Accessibility to inputs and equipment (no government interventions and no encouragement or support)
b. Shortage of labor/incessant herders harassment.
c. Unavailable standard measurements for farm produce and also lack of a proper farmers market for organic farm produce.
5/ From: Viviane CdV <[log in to unmask]> (Italy)
(Local) markets there are fantastic places (to sell our produce), but these markets are very far, and very expensive (to get a spot on the market). They do not want to understand that we are small (producers) and (thus limit our profit): we have to pay taxes (both market fees and actual government taxes), transportation and to market our produce (as they are very far away), you (also have to find local accommodation to spend the night).
The main constraint is that taxes too high on all our produce.
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Q3.2/3 - Question “3.2: Share specific examples of what types of adaptations and innovations have helped small farms to cope with these challenges.”
1/ From: E.S. Njieassam <[log in to unmask]> (Cameroon)
To cope with challenges towards fluctuation in markets. most of the farmers here, have engaged in the creation of cooperatives societies where small farmers come together to determine price for their goods and to negotiate a common ground for the marketing of their goods.
To cope with governance mechanism, groups of farmers engage in similar product cultivation through societies and cooperatives, forming a leadership of governance which is registered and recognised by the state and local administrative authorities. Through these recognised groups their local administrators and NGOs can easily negotiate disputes with them and organise training sessions respectively for them to improve their lives and output, and to reduce conflict among small farmers
2/ From: Said Zarouali <[log in to unmask]> (Morocco)
For me, this is linked to the mechanisms for the governance of agriculture (e.g. agricultural policies), and the cooperation/cooperatives of farmers.
It is important that these agricultural stakeholders are properly represented in the government -- in the case of Morocco specifically the cooperatives of olive oil production.
3/ From: Loupa Pius <[log in to unmask]> (Uganda)
I would like to share some experiences pastoralists and crop farmers use to mitigate or manage some of the key challenges in regards to "Strategies used by small farms to overcome challenges”
Pastoralists in Karamoja (North Uganda) handle such cases through:
1. Strategic Mobility
2. Herd diversification
3. Destocking and restocking at the challenging time.
4. Herd separation females from males in livestock
5. Livestock to markets
6. Paying out as bride price
Crop farmers:
1. Sharing family land
2. Conservation Agriculture practices
3. crop diversity
4. group labour
4/ From: Viviane CdV <[log in to unmask]> (Italy)
- We are actively using tourism, to attract people onto local markets: Provide (on the markets) a quality of crop and livestock - better presentation of our products in a market, the presentation of your own farm, the history of the farm, the history of people eating your product - also the medicinal part of it, with the farms it becomes a zone of quality. This makes the people become curious of your story...
- Apart from (marketing) our produce as a “food” or “beverage”, we are also trying to look for a range of end-product: cosmetics.
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