Agricultural productivity: Small-scale growers make impact through intensive farming

Small-scale farmers the world over are contributing immensely to agricultural production in their respective countries. The story of the Zimbabwean smallholder farmer stands out as a clear example of what this constituency can achieve if given space.

Since Independence, small-scale farmers have been the main players in the production of crops like cotton and maize. Lately, they have taken over tobacco production as well. Economists are unanimous they utilise land more intensively or efficiently than their counterparts on vast tracts of land.

Since their pieces of land are smaller, they are more likely to have readily available resources in the form of inputs and labour. Most of them use family labour and unlike large-scale farmers, they are not likely to be constrained in hiring external labour.

The majority also uses personal funds to purchase inputs like fertilisers and chemicals. Thus, there is a high likelihood that they will not be hindered by the reluctance of banks to advance agricultural loans.

Land redistribution in Africa south of the Sahara from large-scale to small-scale farmers is also justified on that premise. The Zimbabwean case has proved critics of the land reform programme completely wrong. On a per unit basis, land is now being used more effectively than it was used by the previous land owners.

Small-scale farmers are not only well-known for growing food to feed themselves; they also have a reputation of contributing to feeding larger populations.

An example is India where over 82 percent of farmers are small-scale and contribute the bulk of food. Kenya is known to have built its dairy milk production using supplies from small-scale farmers. In Bangladesh, over 96 percent of the farms are small-scale and contribute massively to food production.

In our own case, while the country managed to produce only about 700 000 metric tonnes of the staple food last year, this year, the decision by Government to channel US$160 million to small-scale farmers resulted in the country producing over 1,4 million tonnes of maize.

This just goes to show that with the right support, small-scale farmers can respond to market and Government incentives. They can, therefore, be relied upon to produce the required strategic crops in any country.

An analysis of the contributions of farmers from different sectors, as shown by the yearly crop and livestock estimates, indicates small-scale farmers (communal, A1, old resettlement and small-scale commercial farmers) actually contribute about 75 percent of the country’s maize production.

Large-scale and A2 farmers contribute only 25 percent of the country’s maize production.

Cotton is produced by over 300 000 small-scale farmers in dry parts of the country like Gokwe, Chiredzi, Sanyati, Mutoko, Mudzi, Muzarabani, and Mount Darwin.

Cotton is a drought-tolerant crop and farmers in these areas realise reasonable yields even in drought years. At independence in 1980, tobacco was grown by about 1 547 mainly white large-scale commercial farmers.

While a few blacks bought farms soon after independence, most of them were not very successful as they lacked the support of commercial banks and an organised Government extension service that the white farmers had exclusively enjoyed from the pre-independence era.

The white farmers also formed very strong farmers’ associations and unions that helped gather and disseminate information to members and helped lobby for favourable farming conditions. The picture changed considerably with the advent of the second phase of the land reform programme in 2001.

While the first phase was conducted on a willing-buyer-willing-seller basis, the second phase centred on compulsory land acquisition as previously white-held land was transferred to blacks.

Most resettled farmers tried to grow maize commercially and other traditional crops grown in communal areas. They, however, quickly realised that the returns from such crops were low and opted, instead, to venture into tobacco-growing.

The number of registered tobacco farmers has risen from 1 547 mainly white commercial farmers in 1980 to 60,047 in the 2012 season. There were also 51 679 small-scale farmers and 8 368 small-to-medium scale and A2 farmers.

This year, approximately 106 456 farmers grew the crop with the majority again consisting of small-scale farmers. Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) indicate that production declined from a peak of 236 million kilogrammes in 2000 when white farmers still dominated to a low of just 55,4 million kg in 2006.

However, since then, production has increased steadily and this year breached the 200 million kilogramme mark. This steady rise in tobacco production is attributed to small-scale farmers.

 

Peter Gambara is an independent agricultural economist and a farmer.