Abstract
Whether or not investments in African agriculture can generate quality employment at scale, avoid dispossessing local people of their land, promote diversified and sustainable livelihoods, and catalyse more vibrant local economies depends on what farming model is pursued. In this Forum, we build on recent scholarship by discussing the key findings of our recent studies in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia. We examined cases of three models of agricultural commercialisation, characterised by different sets of institutional arrangements that link land, labour and capital. The three models are: plantations or estates with on-farm processing; contract farming and outgrower schemes; and medium-scale commercial farming areas. Building on core debates in the critical agrarian studies literature, we identify commercial farming areas and contract farming as producing the most local economic linkages, and plantations/estates as producing more jobs, although these are of low quality and mostly casual. We point to the gender and generational dynamics emerging in the three models, which reflect the changing demand for family and wage labour. Models of agricultural commercialisation do not always deliver what is expected of them in part because local conditions play a critical role in the unfolding outcomes for land relations, labour regimes, livelihoods and local economies.
Highlights
Debates continue about the relative merits of large and small farms, their implications for labour absorption, rural livelihoods and growth in Africa’s farm sector (Lipton 2009; World Bank 2008; Collier and Dercon 2014; cf. Deininger and Byerlee 2011; Baglioni and Gibbon 2013)
The recent onset of a ‘global land grab’ (Borras et al 2011) and evidence of largescale land acquisitions in Africa has refocused attention on this longstanding debate, in a context of assumed land scarcity (Scoones et al 2014). As part of this drive for investment, This JPS Forum presents the findings of a study conducted in Ghana, Kenya and Zambia, coordinated by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) www.plaas.org.za at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa and under the auspices of the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) www.future-agricultures.org
While several studies have addressed the relative efficiency of different scales and forms of commercial farming, in terms of land and labour productivity (Govereh and Jayne 2003; Lipton 2012; Dzanku 2015), our attention is on dynamics of agrarian change rather than factor productivity
Summary
Debates continue about the relative merits of large and small farms, their implications for labour absorption, rural livelihoods and growth in Africa’s farm sector (Lipton 2009; World Bank 2008; Collier and Dercon 2014; cf. Deininger and Byerlee 2011; Baglioni and Gibbon 2013). While several studies have addressed the relative efficiency of different scales and forms of commercial farming, in terms of land and labour productivity (Govereh and Jayne 2003; Lipton 2012; Dzanku 2015), our attention is on dynamics of agrarian change rather than factor productivity In this Forum, we ask who benefits and who loses out from agricultural commercialisation in Africa, how do agrarian transitions happen, what processes of accumulation and dispossession are generated, and where potentially do livelihoods get secured and for whom? We discuss the three models of commercial agriculture, and introduce our comparative research design, which involves three countries, three models and nine case studies, our qualitative methodologies and the design, sampling and analytical methods used in the household survey administered across our nine case study areas
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