Why it ’ s beneficial to organise smallholder farmers into groups
Sikhulumile Sinyolo , Research Specialist in the Economic Performance and Development , Human Sciences Research Council .
The role of smallholder farmers has come under the spotlight in South Africa as the country navigates the tricky process of land reform . Smallholder farming is billed as the main avenue through which emerging black farmers are likely to grow their share of the country ’ s agricultural economic activity .
But South Africa ’ s smallholder farmers face major obstacles . Most of these originate from a lack of financial muscle , knowledge and networks . There has been growing evidence from across the African continent that organising smallholder farmers into groups helps them overcome some of these challenges . Examples include farmer groups among vegetable growers in Freetown , Sierra Leone , frankincense cooperatives in Tigray , Ethiopia and potato farmer groups in Malawi , which have boosted poor farmers ’ success by sharing costs and facilitating access to relevant , contextual information .
Our study adds to this body of evidence . It looked at fertiliser use trends among South African smallholder farmers who were organised into groups versus those who were not .
We found that smallholder farmers in South Africa use fewer fertilisers than they should . This is partly because they don ’ t know which fertilisers suit their specific soils . But more importantly they lack the resources to buy and transport the fertilisers to their farming areas ,
AgriKultuur | AgriCulture which are often far from major centres on impassable roads .
Our findings suggest that organising farmers into groups can help to tackle these issues , modernise farming and improve smallholders ’ incomes .
But not all smallholder farmer groups work well . In South Africa many are consumed by leadership tensions , corruption and toxic relations and become dysfunctional . It is critical to ensure that smallholder farming groups are run democratically and by the farmers themselves , with less interference from outsiders .
More positives than negatives In South Africa many farmer groups have been formed because government , NGOs and other rural development agencies prefer to work with groups instead of individual farming households . This makes it easier to reach and support more people at the same time .
But many problems have been reported in these groups . Some of the challenges include infighting among the group members , and faults with group leadership or management .
This has resulted in some farmer groups becoming dysfunctional and the government has been criticised for favouring the group approach .
Most of these criticisms are justified . But our work on the role of farmer groups and
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