Constraints to the sustainability of a ‘systematised’ approach to livestock marketing amongst smallholder cattle producers in South Africa

Commercialization of smallholder agriculture in South Africa is underpinned by reforms to improve livestock off-take in communal areas and engage smallholder farmers with formal markets. To achieve this, Custom Feeding Programmes (CFPs) were established to improve the condition of communal cattle prior to their sale into formal markets and to ‘systematise’ the informal marketing of cattle in communal areas by enabling participants to achieve higher informal market prices. We evaluate the sustainability of eight CFPs located in Eastern Cape Province in terms of their ability to add value to smallholder cattle production and encourage market participation. Communities with CFPs achieved a 16.6% mean cattle off-take rate, substantially higher than in most communal systems. Furthermore, cattle sold through CFPs attained a 17% higher mean selling price than those sold through other marketing channels. However, these benefits were mainly realized by better-off farmers with larger cattle herds and greater ability to transport animals to and from CFPs. More marginalized farmers, particularly women, had low participation. CFPs also face challenges to their sustainability, including inconsistent feed and water supplies, poor infrastructure and high staff turnover. Key to enhancing participation in CFPs, will be improving the way they are supported and embedded within communities.     

Multi-stakeholder platforms for linking small farmers to value chains: evidence from the Andes

Value chains linked to urban markets and agro-industry present new opportunities for adding value and raising rural incomes. Small farmers, who produce small volumes, struggle to enter these markets. A lack of trust among value chain actors increases transaction costs and short-circuits innovation. This paper explores how multi-stakeholder platforms have been used to address these problems in potato-based value chains in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. It uses the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to understand how platforms work. Differences in characteristics of the value chains, the participating actors and institutional arrangements have led to the emergence of two types of platforms. The first type brings traders, processors, supermarkets and others together with farmer associations and research and development (R&D) organizations to foster the development of new market opportunities through commercial, institutional and technological innovation. The second type is structured around geographically delimited supply areas, meshing farmers and service providers to address market governance issues in assuring volumes, meeting quality and timeliness constraints and empowering farmers. Evidence from these cases indicates that platforms that bring stakeholders together around value chains can result in new products, processes, norms and behaviours that benefit poor farmers, which could not have been achieved otherwise.     

A stall-feeding management for improved cattle in semiarid central Tanzania: factors influencing adoption

This study's objectives were to determine factors influencing smallholder farmers' adoption of a stall-feeding management system for improved dairy cattle in semiarid Tanzania and other related technology packages, Heckman's two-stage procedure was used to determine factors influencing participation in the project and the adoption of recommended management practices. Stall-feeding technology is Jocularly attractive to those households with fewer resources particularly those that are female headed. Wealthier farmers, as measured by area of land cultivated, are less likely to adopt the stall-feeding technology. Household labour is found to be important in determining the degree to Which the technology and associated management practices were adopted. Age of the household head has a positive impact on the size of the Intensive feed gardens. Different measures of extension-related contact are significant in influencing the potential lor adopting stall-fed technology, the number of stall-fed cattle kept, the probability of growing water melons, and the size of intensive feed gardens. The implications are that research and extension messages with reference to the stall-feeding management system need to be targeted to specific types of households (e.g., female farmers, those with children to provide labor, and limited resource farms). This supports the notion that technology development and dissemination need to be sensitive not only to the characteristics of the biophysical environment but also to the socioeconomic environment, which is often neglected. The study also demonstrates that in the poorer parts of the world where land is very limited, a strategy for improving ecological sustainability can be linked closely to one for increasing agricultural productivity.     

Smallholder dairy cattle feeding technologies and practices in Tanzania: failures,successes, challenges and prospects for sustainability

In Tanzania, milk production under smallholder farming systems is season sensitive, fluctuations of feeds in both quantity and quality being the major driver. A dry season decline in milk production of over 40% due to feed scarcity is a common phenomenon. Adoption of improved feed production, conservation and utilization technologies and practices in dairy farming communities is poor. This review work was based on a key question which states “Why is adoption of improved dairy nutrition technologies and practices in Tanzania still poor despite being promoted for decades?”. We have shown that major opportunities for curbing dry season animal feed shortage include on-farm optimization of production and use of high yielding pasture varieties including napier grass (Pennisetum purperium Schumach.) and leguminous fodder species. Crop residues in particular maize stover needs to be optimized for effective dry season feeding. The major reasons for low adoption of proven technologies include limited technical knowhow among smallholder dairy farmers augmented by limited extension services and technological costs. For enhancing sustainable uptake; we suggest promotion of on-farm research, public-private partnerships and dairy farmers’ cooperative associations. These are vital for facilitating smooth access to information, investment capital, reliable inputs and markets among the smallholder dairy farmers.     

Mobile money,agricultural marketing,and off‐farm income in Uganda

Mobile money (MM) services can contribute to welfare gains in smallholder farm households. Previous research showed that one important pathway for these MM‐related welfare gains is through higher remittances received from relatives and friends. Here, the role of other impact pathways is examined, especially focusing on agricultural marketing and off‐farm economic activities. The analysis builds on panel data from smallholder coffee farmers in Uganda. Regression models show that the adoption of MM technology has contributed to higher household incomes and consumption levels. Off‐farm income gains are identified to be an important pathway, also beyond remittances. Typical off‐farm income sources are small businesses in trade, transport, and handicrafts, which benefit from novel savings and money transfer opportunities through MM. In terms of agricultural marketing, MM users sell a larger proportion of their coffee as shelled beans to buyers in high‐value markets, instead of selling to local traders immediately after harvest. MM services help to reduce cash constraints and facilitate transactions with buyers from outside local regions. In conclusion, MM can contribute to rural development through various important pathways. Analysis of adoption patterns suggests that MM services are socially inclusive.     

The role of input vouchers in modernizing the fresh fruit and vegetable market in Turkey

Contractual arrangements between farmers and traders aiming at providing input/credit in return for output selling have been widely studied in the literature on agricultural economics. Nonetheless, there is one issue, which is barely mentioned in the literature: how to enforce the contract terms when traders offer credit in cash rather than input advances? This article aims to describe an innovation in farming contracts, used by fresh fruit and vegetable wholesalers in Turkey, which involves a kind of private voucher system. Drawing on original data collected from wholesalers—a segment in the supply chain hardly covered in the literature—we investigate the factors determining contract adoption using a two‐limit Tobit model. Our results suggest that this private voucher system contributes to supply chain coordination and facilitates smallholder farmer participation in export and supermarket channels, which are growing rapidly in this developing country.     

Research,development and scaling-up the adoption of fodder shrub innovations in East Africa

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face numerous limitations that hinder them from embracing improved agricultural practices and innovations with great potential for meaningful transformations of livelihoods. Consequently, farmers continue living in vicious cycles of poverty despite decades of government and donor expenditures on poverty alleviation. In the last two decades, research and development organizations collaborated in testing and validating selected fodder shrub species as reliable sources of less expensive and easily available protein feeds. With minimal interventions, the research findings have great potential to improve productivity for many smallholder farmers. Tested species include Calliandra calothyrsus, Leucaena spp., Chamaecytisus palmensis, Sesbania sesban, Morus alba and Gliricidia sepium. Dissemination and adoption surveys estimated that 205,000 smallholder farmers (40–50 per cent being women) had planted fodder shrubs by 2005. Currently, fodder shrubs contribute US$3.8 million annually to farmers' incomes and estimated potential annual income is US$81 million. Factors associated with success in fodder scaling-up include deliberate involvement of fodder technology champions, collective action in community mobilization and project implementation, pluralistic extension approaches, sustainable germplasm supply systems, broader partnerships and civil society campaigns. Constraints and challenges include: ineffective delivery of extension and research services, inhibitive policies, political interferences, frequent droughts and inadequate monitoring and evaluation systems.     

Price predictors in an extended hedonic regression framework: An application to wholesale cattle markets in Ethiopia

Livestock markets influence income generation for producers, but also accessibility and affordability of highly nutritious animal-sourced foods for consumers. Despite their importance, the functioning of livestock markets in lower-income countries is poorly understood and rarely studied compared to more developed countries. This study analyzes wholesale cattle markets in Ethiopia using a uniquely rich large-scale dataset covering both prices and cattle characteristics in 39 markets (in both highland and lowland areas) over a 10-year period, and hedonic regression models structured to understand both cattle price formation and seasonal and secular price dynamics. We show that cattle prices are influenced by a wide range of factors, including proxies for meat quality, religious fasting practices, climate-based seasonality but also climate shocks and availability of grazing land, competition from animal traction services, and rising consumer incomes. However, the implied effects of these factors are often significantly different in highland mixed crop-livestock areas compared to agro-pastoralist lowland areas, emphasizing the dualistic nature of cattle markets in Ethiopia. The analyses help inform the systemic challenges that Ethiopia will need to overcome to meet rising demand for beef products in the face of sustained income and population growth, as well as the adverse effects of climate change.     

Who you know and when you plough? Social capital and agricultural mechanization under the new green revolution in Ghana

This paper examines the role of social capital in smallholder agriculture mechanization in Ghana under the ongoing agenda for transformation of African agriculture through the new green revolution. It contributes to the ongoing debate on the potential of social capital in explaining socioeconomic activity over time and space. Drawing on the experiences of smallholder farmers (n = 30) from Navrongo using qualitative interviews and focus group discussions, the paper explores how social capital networks shape mechanized service access and utilization among farmers and highlights the historical background to tractor-based mechanized farming in northern Ghana. Findings reveal how local farmers activate and operate in trustworthy social networks at the community level among themselves and externally with government agencies, traders and development partners to facilitate tractor access. The paper also finds that the withdrawal of government subsidies on agricultural services during structural adjustment in the 1980s created an avenue for private sector entry into the tractor service market. In recent times, the market is a blend of both public and private actors. Given the crucial role of social capital, this paper stresses that apart from economic factors, contemporary agricultural policy should build upon contextual sociocultural networks and the resources inherent in them.     

The politics of markets: Farmer–trader relations under neoliberalism in Punjab,India

This article asks how local traders or middlemen continue to thrive in the agricultural markets of liberalized India. It studies this by focusing on the shifting politics of the relation between farmers and commission agents (arhtias) in post‐harvest wholesale markets in Ludhiana district, Punjab. It uses the framework of political analysis of markets towards this, paying close attention to the role of the state and the nature of interlinked markets. Drawing on intensive primary fieldwork, the article argues that the power of the arhtias is constituted differently across different commodities and in relation to different agrarian classes. At the same time, the state, notwithstanding its changing priorities, and the diversification of large farmers into the commission agent business have been crucial to their persistence in the wholesale grain markets.     

The importance of ecological and socio-technological literacy in R&D priority setting: the case of a fruit innovation system in Guinea,West Africa

The introduction of farmer participatory approaches over the past decades has to some extent improved the relevance and uptake of research results. While R&D prioritization increasingly involves more stakeholders, including the private sector, policymakers and civil society, building ecological literacy among all stakeholders is urgent, especially for sustainable agricultural development. A case study of an emerging fruit innovation system in Guinea, West Africa, highlights the challenges of supply- and demand-driven approaches to R&D prioritization. Shallow ecological knowledge and a blind faith in ‘modern’ technologies by scientists and farmers alike distort prioritization. Locally available, appropriate technologies are dismissed in favour of high technologies that are inaccessible to most smallholder growers. Strengthening the ecological literacy of all stakeholders may help to overcome this bias. On the other hand, building socio-technological literacy would allow innovation intermediaries, who typically act as brokers between the demand- and supply-side of technologies, to better understand the social and institutional contexts of technologies and how these affect potential uptake by poor farmers. Member centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) could use the notion of ecological and socio-technological literacy to better understand supply and demand of technology and to work more effectively with their partners towards pro-poor and sustainable agricultural development.     

Growing struggle over rising demand: How land use change and complex farmer-grazier conflicts impact grazing management in the Western Highlands of Cameroon

Continuous population growth and rapid urbanization rates in West and Central Africa are associated with rising demand for fresh vegetables and animal-based products, providing market opportunities for local producers from the surrounding areas. However, in regions such as northwestern Cameroon where pastoral cattle breeding remains an important part of the local livestock sector, competition over dwindling resources with local crop farmers are increasing due to progressive land-use change from natural and traditional grazing areas into agricultural land.In order to determine the main areas of conflict and their interdependencies, we used a multi-temporal land-use classification and a multi-dimensional participatory approach of collecting spatial data from six representative Mbororo cattle herds, equipped with GPS collars. We combined this with 162 map-based interviews with randomly sampled pastoralists on seasonal grazing areas, grazing management, land ownership, and major constraints to herding. This data set was complemented by the perspectives of 40 randomly sampled crop farmers from four major transhumance zones.Both parties identified farmer-grazier conflicts as a serious constraint for their activities in the rainy season (graziers: 23.9 %; farmers: 22.5 %) and particularly in the dry season (36.3 %; 47.2 %). Land tenure issues will be of critical importance in the future as only very few respondents held an official land title, and pastoralists appeared less prepared for land disputes than crop farmers, who more often claimed land ownership through fencing. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing and implementing alliance farming strategies that are based on dialogue between both interest groups to avoid further escalation within a region already in a conflict-ridden political environment.     

Addressing the paradox – the divergence between smallholders’ preference and actual adoption of agricultural innovations

Experiences in smallholder contexts indicate frequent mismatches between technologies introduced and needs of farmers who must make complex decisions in reallocating their limited resources under highly risky ecological and market contexts. This study proposes a cost- and time-effective, easy-to-implement approach to identify farmers’ priorities and critical intervention areas, and presents its application in guiding an agroforestry strategy in Rwanda. It was found that different tree species have distinctive enabling vs. constraining conditions under different agroecological contexts in the perspective of smallholder farmers. Tree species preferred by farmers were not necessarily widely adopted if multitudes of conditions were not enabling. The essential conditions for sustainable adoption include: quality materials/inputs are available; technologies are compatible with existing local farming systems; they are resilient to climate risks/resistant to pests-diseases; management is not complicated; and, there is guaranteed access to markets. The results show that there will not be a silver bullet national strategy to scale up agroforestry. Instead a matrix kind of strategies -to promote enabling conditions and address constraining conditions for priority species in specific agroecologies- will be required. The proposed concept should be further refined for wider agricultural technology transfer debates to break the myths of low uptakes by smallholders.     

The impact of transport-and transaction-cost reductions on food markets in developing countries: evidence for tempered expectations for Burkina Faso

Reductions in transport and transaction costs are expected to have a major effect on the functioning of food markets in developing countries. For Burkina Faso, this is a relevant issue as it may have important consequences for the food markets in urban and rural deficit areas. A partial equilibrium model is presented to analyze the short-term effects of reduced costs on price formation, inter-regional cereal trade, and farmers' and traders' storage strategies. Our results show that the high expectations with regard to the direct effects of cost reductions on food prices and food availability require some nuance. The effects of a reduction of transport costs will be small. Moreover, also the unintended negative consequences on the competitive position of farmers and traders in other regions that do not profit from road construction should be taken into account. Finally, it is concluded that only if transport and transaction costs are reduced simultaneously, will both the consumers and farmers benefit significantly.     

Testing for Processor Market Power in the Markets for Cattle and Hogs in Canada

Deviations of livestock input prices from processor marginal value product are usually interpreted as an indication of the application of market power by the meat packing industry. However, market power depends on economic conditions that can influence the behavior of meat packers in the market for cattle and hogs. An industry-level translog profit function is applied to data on the Canadian finished cattle and hog markets and industry-wide oligopsony market power functions are estimated. The estimates suggest beef packers exercised a small but sustained amount of market power in the Canadian finished cattle market from 1978 to 1997. This is not the case in the market for hogs, which was competitive from 1960 to 1997. Application of market power in packers'purchases of farm animals decreased with increases in the utilization of domestic supply of slaughter animals and with increased levels of livestock exports. Livestock productivity increases appear to have significantly enhanced oligopsony power in packers'purchases of farm animals. The analysis suggests that beef processors may exert market power when cattle prices are relatively higher.     

Environmental discounting behaviour of smallholder farmers in Chibombo District,Central Zambia

This study utilised 158 semi structured interviews, three focus group discussions and two key informant interviews to achieve its aim of investigating environmental discounting by smallholder farmers in Chibombo, Zambia. Results suggest that most smallholder farmers were willing to continue using mineral fertilisers in the short to medium term even when they were told there could be potentially negative effects as a result. This result was attributed to the farmers’ experience with neutralising soil acidity through lime application and crop rotations. The proportions of smallholder farmers who would continue using pesticides increased with the period it takes for pesticide induced soil infertility to manifest. The respondents seemed more concerned about effects on the soil that would manifest in five years. Smallholder farmers preferred soil improving practices with short term benefits, and low risk. The proportions of smallholder farmers willing to plant fertiliser trees reduced from 68.5 % when the benefits accrue in five years to about 38 % when said benefits accrue to the next generation. Study recommends that agricultural development interventions should focus on low risk, locally available technologies with shorter term benefits and minimal future costs. Study recommends that agricultural development interventions include innovation of practices with shorter term benefits, minimal future costs and farmer sensitisation on the benefits of sustainable agriculture.     

Formal and informal contract farming in Mozambique: Socially embedded relations of agricultural intensification

This paper explores the role of contract farming arrangements in agricultural intensification in sub-Saharan Africa, combining secondary literature and original case material from Mozambique. The paper extends the scope of “contract farming” beyond the formal contracts between large companies and small-scale producers to include less formal credit agreements between farmers and traders. It argues that such informal contract arrangements are evidence of farmers' agency in “real markets.” In the studied cases, farmers use contract farming opportunities to intensify agricultural production by investing in irrigation and inputs. While informal contracts typically concern locally consumed crops, thus with more possibilities for side selling than formal contracts for export crops with company-controlled markets, informal contract compliance reflects closely knit social ties between the contracting parties. In both formal and informal contracts, purchasers tend to seek out producers who are already irrigating, thus obtaining gains from farmers' earlier investments. This also implies contract farming as a mechanism for accelerating social differentiation arising from unequal access to irrigation. The paper argues that the significance of informal contracts in the studied cases raises the possibility that informal contract farming by local traders plays a more important role in agrarian transformation in Africa than formal contract farming by large companies.     

Effects of European Union agricultural policies on the sustainability of grazingland use in a typical Greek rural area

Recent changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) introduced different definitions regarding the eligibility of various types of land used by grazing animals. In particular, shrublands and other low-quality areas which have traditionally been used as grazinglands are now not eligible for European Union income support payments. Subject to these changes, a large part of livestock farms will be affected, being partially or fully deprived of EU income support. In addition to these policy-driven changes, pasture-fed livestock farms in Greece are faced with a unique system of grazingland allocation, as all grazing areas in the country are state-owned. These areas are allocated for a short period either directly to farmers who are permanent residents of the Municipalities or to other livestock farmers through an auction system, which does not take into account the grazing capacity thus bringing about environmental degradation. This paper investigates the effects of CAP changes and of this communal land allocation system based on the findings of a typological analysis. The study focuses on a typical Greek territory in terms of land uses, economic activities and sociodemographic developments. Data from a questionnaire survey are used to build a typology of local livestock farms in terms of their nutritional management and land use characteristics and then the profile of each type is investigated through the estimation of a Multinomial Logit Model where the dependent variable is the cluster participation. Three distinct types of farms (clusters) are determined. Cluster 1 includes traditional farms which rear sheep and goats and bovine for meat, which are highly dependent on grazingland uses and EU income support. Cluster 2 farms – mainly sheep and goat – have evolved a ‘double’ dependency on land in the form of grazingland but also of cropland for feedstuff production, which renders them more resilient to policy changes. Finally, Cluster 3 farms are intensive dairy cattle farms and use artificial (cultivated) privately-owned grazinglands and cropland for feedstuff production. Market-oriented measures are proposed for each type and suggestions for an integrated land use plan are made, including long-term leasing of land and the consideration of environmental criteria for land allocation, thus rendering farmers responsible for keeping their land in a good production state.     

The Effects of Transaction Costs,Power and Risk on Contractual Arrangements: A Conceptual Framework for Quantitative Analysis

Increased reliance on commercial traders in liberalised agricultural markets poses questions about the nature of contractual relations between traders and farmers; about welfare, efficiency and equity characteristics of these relations; and about conditions necessary for traders to engage in these markets. A new institutional economics analysis seeks to understand the institutions that affect transaction costs and risks for each party, and power relations between them. Transaction cost analysis has not, however, developed a unifying conceptual or quantitative framework to integrate these issues. This paper develops a methodology for modelling negotiated choice of contractual arrangements in buyer/seller relationships, taking account of the socioeconomic characteristics of each party, economic and technical characteristics of the commodity, and the institutional environment. The model is setup as a non‐linear programming problem. The approach provides a framework for the application of transaction cost economics to quantitative empirical study of markets, to individual firms' supply chain decisions, and to the analysis of policy interventions in markets.