{"id":13095,"date":"2022-03-25T19:11:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T19:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa"},"modified":"2022-03-25T19:41:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T19:41:55","slug":"the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa","title":{"rendered":"The pros and cons of commercial farming models in\u00a0Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again promoting large plantations and estates. But the new corporate interest in African agriculture has been criticised as a \u201cland grab\u201d.<\/p>\n

Small-scale farmers, on family land, are still the mainstay of African farming, producing 90% of its food. Their future is increasingly uncertain as the large-scale colonial model returns. To make way for big farms, local people have lost their land. Promises of jobs and other benefits have been slow to materialise, if at all.<\/p>\n

The search is on for alternatives to big plantations and estates that can bring in private investment without dispossessing local people \u2013 and preferably also support people\u2019s livelihoods by creating jobs and strengthening local economies. Get news that\u2019s free, independent and based on evidence. Get newsletter Two possible models stand out.<\/p>\n

Contract farming is often touted as an \u201cinclusive business model\u201d that links smallholders into commercial value chains. In these arrangements, smallholder farmers produce cash crops on their own land, as \u2018outgrowers\u2019, on contract to agroprocessing companies.<\/p>\n

Then there is growth in a new class of \u201cmiddle farmers\u201d. These are often educated business people and civil servants who are investing money earned elsewhere into medium-scale commercial farms which they own and operate themselves.<\/p>\n

So what are the real choices and trade-offs between large plantations or estates; contract farming by outgrowers; or individual medium-scale commercial farmers?<\/p>\n

These different models formed the focus of our three-year study in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. Evidence suggests that each model has different strengths. For policy makers, deciding which kind of farming to promote depends on what they want to achieve. Plantations are \u2018enclaves\u2019<\/p>\n

Our cases confirm the characterisation of large plantations as being \u201cenclaves\u201d with few linkages into local economies. They buy farming inputs from far afield, usually from overseas, and in turn send their produce into global markets, bypassing local intermediaries.<\/p>\n

Plantations are large, self-contained agribusinesses that rely on hired labour and are vertically-integrated into processing chains (often with on-farm processing). They\u2019re usually associated with one major crop. In Africa, these started with colonial concessions, especially in major cash crops such as coffee, tea, rubber, cotton and sugarcane. Some of these later became state farms after independence while others were dismantled and land returned to local farmers.<\/p>\n

Many plantations do create jobs, especially if they have on-site processing. Plantations may also support local farmers if they process crops that local smallholders are already growing. For example, we found an oil palm plantation in Ghana that buys from local smallholders, giving them access to processing facilities and international value chains they would otherwise not reach.<\/p>\n

But, typically, plantations have limited connections into the local economy beyond the wages they pay. Where production is mechanised, they create few jobs, as we found in Zambia: the Zambeef grain estate employs few people, and most of these are migrants whose wages don\u2019t go into the local economy. And the jobs that are created are invariably of poor quality.<\/p>\n

The main story is that plantations take up land and yet often don\u2019t give back to the local economy. In the cases we researched, all the plantations led to local people losing their land. For instance, the establishment and later expansion of the 10,000-hectare Zambeef estate led to forced removals of people from their cropping fields and grazing lands.<\/p>\n

There are some benefits from plantations and estates. But, given more than a century of bad experience, it may be time to concede they seldom \u2013 if ever \u2013 live up to their promises.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again promoting large plantations and estates. But the new corporate interest in African agriculture has been criticised as a \u201cland grab\u201d. Small-scale farmers, on family land, are still the mainstay of African farming, producing 90% of its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9],"tags":[2365,2355,2361,5506,260],"class_list":["post-13095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-commercial","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nThe pros and cons of commercial farming models in\u00a0Africa - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again promo ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The pros and cons of commercial farming models in\u00a0Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again promo ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-25T19:11:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-25T19:41:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/03\/img-623e1ade2221a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"731\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The pros and cons of commercial farming models in\u00a0Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-25T19:11:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-25T19:41:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa\"},\"wordCount\":616,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/03\/img-623e1ade2221a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"commercial\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/the-pros-and-cons-of-commercial-farming-models-in-africa\",\"name\":\"The pros and cons of commercial farming models in\u00a0Africa - 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