African farmers are smallholders as they can only farm a little portion which usually is not more than two hectares and most of the produce is consumed by the household while the rest is sold to augment family upkeep, but most farmers often face serious difficulties in accessing markets to sell their commodities in the marketplace.
Majority of farmers are constrained by their remote location, high transportation costs, limited knowledge, and the lack of business skills and an organisation that could give them the bargaining power they require to interact on equal terms with other market intermediaries.
While access to the market and its information can contribute significantly to the reduction of poverty if appropriate measures are taken, experts at a new AATF programme have called for strategies that makes access to market and quality information a must if farmers are to grow beyond the level of subsistence.
The experts during an interactive session with the Executive Director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Dr Canisius Kanangire, on the Foundation’s agric talk show tagged: ‘KIKAO’ analysed the importance of market information and understanding of the market environment in which farmers operate.
Kanangire, the anchor of the show, said, if appropriate measures are not taken to address the issue of lack of access to market, smallholder farmers risk being pushed out of the market.
The Founder/CEO, Women Farmers Advanced Network (WOFAN), Dr Salamatu Garba, who was a guest expert on the show noted that no single organisation can address the issue of access to market, as more hands are needed.
According to her, several organisations that are stakeholders along the entire value chain should come together and have an agreement on how the market system can work.
She said: “At the time of agreement on contract, farming and linkages to market, you bring in the input, you bring on the insurance person, and the legal people, because one of the fears of the farmers will be that once we have an agreement with someone we produce and at the end of the day, the person doesn’t show up, it becomes discouraging.”
In some cases, farmers will be asked to grow wheat. Maybe farmers grew wheat with the promise that it’s going to be taken off by the government and towards production, you find out that a huge importation is done and the farmers are left without any solution.
”So what happens in such a situation? This is where organisations like ours, the stakeholders, will bring in our strength for instance, we come with the input, extension services, technology experts or insurance and then sign the contract agreement at the beginning, so that the farmers are not cheated.
”For instance, we track the market with the media people. The media is our closest friend because on a daily basis, we bring closer to the populace the cost of input the cost of what they’re selling.
”So someone will not come on off and take everything from the farmers. Let us make use of the strength of the stakeholders to transform it into a partnership, union, whatever we call immediate partnership coalition or partnership, whatever you in your organisation, this is your strength. This is her strength. We bring all of it together. If all of us are saying this together, it links the smallholder farmers collectively, and we’re not duplicating effort.
Also, Violet Nyando, Manager, Membership, service and Advocacy, Cereals Growers Association, Kenya, who was also a guest on the show noted the importance of data to transform the market system in Africa.
While noting that data has become a powerful tool that gives information, she reiterated the need for the government to invest in data to get genuine information.
She noted that smallholder farmers cannot be ignored as they have to be integrated into the food supply chain through sustainable food production systems.
”With reliable data information, you can make informed decisions. That’s when we are now in the era where we are talking about sustainable food systems. Therefore we cannot ignore smallholder farmers. They have to be integrated into the food supply chain through sustainable food production systems. And we are looking at the trends that are coming up in the world right now which is global warming, we can no longer ignore it and issues around ethical food that has been produced in an ethical way.
”This is because consumers are demanding for ethical food production systems, people either going organic farming or people going a certain way of, you know, procuring the kind of food that they feed. So our smallholder farmers will have to also bring themselves to a level where they can also target profitable markets like those speciality markets where they can sell.”
There’s nothing small that cannot be made beautiful, you can work with anything small and transform it into something big. So let’s start from there”, Nyando added.
Speaking further, Nyando noted that the significance of smallholder farmers in attaining Africa’s food production cannot be overemphasized as they play a very significant role in making sure foods are provided on the table including animal based products.
”When it comes to food security. Smallholder farmers are very important. Not only are they producing for themselves, but they are also producing a diverse variety of foods to ensure that there is, you know, there is food security and indeed, the nutrition security aspect of it.
”They play a very significant role in making sure we have a variety of foods on the table including animal based products.”
By the fact that they are not well structured in terms of production and marketing, that in itself works against them. And therefore they do not have the economies of scale to have the bargaining power.