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Understanding African Agriculture and Its Potential for Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Alan Rufus Waters
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Extract

The domestic economies of most nations in Africa are based upon small-holder agriculture, which has demonstrated in the past that it can be a dynamic source of growth1. However, many governments have tried to constrain this sector and, except for a few export crops during a particular period of time, to replace it with larger farming units wherever possible.2 Part of the reason for such policies is a lack of understanding of the nature of small holdings – surprisingly little is known about what they actually are and do.3 It is frequently assumed that African farmers live in a state of blind ignorance, using inappropriate methods, and only waiting to be taught the excellent technology which stands ready to be used.4 The available evidence indicates that this is grossly wrong.5

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 1974 , pp. 45 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

Page 45 note 1 McLoughlin, Peter F. M., ‘Introduction’, to his (ed.), African Food Production Systems: cases and theory (Baltimore, 1970), pp. 6–8.Google Scholar

Page 45 note 2 Miracle, Marvin P., ‘The Smallholder in Agricultural Policy and Planning: Ghana and the Ivory Coast, 1960 to 1966’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb), IV, 4, 04 1970, pp. 321–32.Google Scholar See also Eicher, Carl K., ‘Tackling Africa's Employment Problems’, in Africa Report (New York), 01 1971, pp. 30–32.Google Scholar

Page 45 note 3 A. T. Mosher, ‘The Development Problems of Subsistence Farmers: a preliminary view’, and Wharton, Clifton R. Jr, ‘Subsistence Agriculture: concepts and scope’, both in his (ed.), Subsistence Agriculture and Economic Development (Chicago, 1969).Google Scholar See also Miracle, Marvin P., ‘Subsistence Agriculture: analytical problems and alternative concepts’, in American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Lexington), L, 2, 05 1969, pp. 292–350.Google Scholar

Page 45 note 4 Batten, T. R., Problems of African Development, Part 1, Land and Labour (London, 1947), pp. 168–9.Google Scholar For a more recent statement of the same view, see Clayton, E. S., Agrarian Development in Peasant Economics: some lessons from Kenya (London, 1964), p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 45 note 5 The unexpected results of introducing alien technology have been widely observed. See Schultz, T. W., Transforming Traditional Agriculture (New Haven, 1964), pp. 36–52;Google ScholarMellor, John W., The Economics of Agricultural Development (Ithaca, 1966);Google Scholar and also Yotopolus, Pan A., ‘On the Efficiency of Resource Utilization in Subsistence Agriculture’, in Food Research Institute Studies (Stanford), VIII, 2, 1968, pp. 126–35.Google Scholar

Page 46 note 1 Joy, Leonard, ‘Strategy for Agricultural Development’, in Seers, Dudley and Joy, Leonard (eds.), Development in a Divided World (Harmondsworth, 1970), p. 175.Google Scholar

Page 46 note 2 In this case, however, we must be careful to hold the probability of failure at the same level under both the original and new conditions, unless we have clear evidence that the small holder will accept a higher risk in return for a greater expected reward. See Edwards, David, ‘Entrepreneurial Behavior of Farmers’, in Borton, Raymond E. (ed.), Selected Readings to Accompany Getting Agriculture Moving, vol. II (New York, 1966), p. 583;Google Scholar and John W. Mellor, ‘The Subsistence Farmer in Traditional Economics’, in Wharton (ed.), op. cit. pp. 214–15.

Page 46 note 3 Cf. Helleiner, Gerald K., Peasant Agriculture, Government, and Economic Growth in Nigeria (Homewood, III. 1966), pp. 387–401,Google Scholar where data collection was above the average for the continent as a whole.

Page 47 note 1 Anyone who believes otherwise should read Morgenstern, Oskar, On the Accuracy of Economic Observations (Princeton, 1963 edn.).Google Scholar

Page 47 note 2 Helleiner, op. cit. p. 397.

Page 47 note 3 MacArthur, J. D., ‘The Economic Study of African Small Farms: some Kenya experiences’, in Journal of Agricultural Economics (Ashford), XVI, 1, 05 1965, pp. 193–205.Google Scholar It will be seen that in Kenya the small-farm survey unit, one of the best of its kind anywhere in Africa, has concentrated on ‘demonstrated superior farms’.

Page 47 note 4 Hayes, Samuel P. Jr, Evaluating Development Projects (Paris, 1966 edn.), pp. 32 and 41.Google Scholar

Page 47 note 5 Eicher, Carl K., Research on Agricultural Development in Five English-Speaking Countries in West Africa (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

Page 47 note 6 See Waters, Alan Rufus, ‘The Cost Structure of the Kenya Coffee Industry’, Ph.D. dissertation, Rice University, 1969,Google Scholar appendix 1. The records of plantation acreages and numbers of trees were found to be hopelessly inaccurate, even in this the most organised coffee industry in Africa; small-holder farms were no better but, interestingly enough, no worse.

Page 47 note 7 Cf. Massell, Benton F. and Johnson, R. W. M., ‘The Economics of Smallholder Farming in Rhodesia: a cross-section analysis of two areas’, in Food Research Institute Studies (Stanford), supplement to vol. VIII, 1968.Google Scholar For an example of an excellent and cautious monograph, see Cleve, John H. and Kearly, Del, ‘An Economic Study of Coffee Farms in Two Areas of Euganda Province’, Uganda Department of Agriculture, Entebbe, 1960.Google Scholar

Page 48 note 1 Allan, William, The African Husbandman (New York, 1965), p. 473.Google Scholar

Page 48 note 2 de Wilde, J. C., ‘Making Agricultural Research Relevant to African Farmers’, Conference on Agricultural Research Priorities for African Economic Development, Abidjan, 1968.Google Scholar

Page 48 note 3 Singer, Hans W., ‘Small-Scale Industry in African Economic Development’, in Robinson, E. A. G. (ed.), Economic Development for Africa South of the Sahara (New York and London 1964), pp. 636–9.Google Scholar

Page 48 note 4 Eicher, ‘Tackling Africa's Employment Problems’, loc. cit. p. 31.

Page 48 note 5 Morgan, W. B., ‘Peasant Agriculture in Tropical Africa’, in Thomas, M. F. and Whittington, G. W. (eds.), Environment and Land Use in Africa (London, 1969), p. 241.Google Scholar

Page 49 note 1 Clark, Colin and Haswell, Margaret, The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture (London, 1970, edn.), p. xi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 49 note 2 Cooper, St. G. C., Agricultural Research in Tropical Africa (Nairobi, 1970), p. 3.Google Scholar

Page 49 note 3 Miracle, ‘Subsistence Agriculture’, loc. cit. pp. 293 and 295.

Page 49 note 4 Ibid. p. 293.

Page 49 note 5 Leonard Joy, ‘Diagnosis, Prediction, and Policy Formulation’, in Wharton (ed.) op. cit. pp. 377–8.

Page 49 note 6 Joy, ‘Strategy for Agricultural Development’, loc. cit. p. 175.

Page 49 note 7 Zinkin, Maurice, ‘Risk in the Peasant's Lot’, in Ceres (Rome), III, 1, 01–02 1971, p. 27.Google Scholar

Page 50 note 1 McLoughlin, op. cit. Observation from a distance is a most inefficient method of discovering what the farmer actually does, let alone why.

Page 50 note 2 Knight, C. Gregory, ‘Ethnogeography and Change’, in The Journal of Geography (Chicago), LXX, 1, 01 1971, p. 49.Google Scholar Cf. also Malone, Carl C., ‘Farm Planning – its purpose and methods’, in the Indian Ministry of Food and Agriculture's Farm Management Training (New Delhi, 1962), pp. 76–82:Google Scholar ‘Planning is natural to farmers in view of the nature of farming’.

Page 50 note 3 Lansing, John B. and Morgan, James N., Economic Survey Methods (Ann Arbor, 1961), p. 3.Google Scholar

Page 50 note 4 de Grott, Adrian D., Methodology: foundations of inference and research in the behavioral sciences (Paris, 1969),Google Scholar chs. 6–7 on ‘Objectivity’, especially p. 199.

Page 50 note 5 Lansing and Morgan, op. cit. p.17.

Page 50 note 6 Simon, Julian L., Basic Research Methods in Social Science: the art of empirical investigation (New York, 1969), p. 29.Google Scholar See also Hyman, Herbert H., Survey Design and Analysis (Illinois, 1955), pp. 67–77.Google Scholar

Page 51 note 1 Cf. Hyman, Herbert H.et al., Interviewing in Social Research (Chicago, 1954),Google Scholar esp. ch. VI, ‘Interviewer Effects under Normal Operating Conditions’; distortion can take place even under ideal conditions.

Page 52 note 1 Bowden, Edgar, ‘Some Basic Requirements for Social Science Survey Research in Developing Countries’, in East African Journal of Rural Development (Nairobi), 2, 1969, p. 47.Google Scholar

Page 52 note 2 Scheuch, Erwin K., ‘The Cross-Cultural Use of Sample Surveys: problems of comparability’, in Rokkan, Stein (ed.), Comparative Research Across Cultures and Nations (Paris, 1968), pp. 279–83.Google Scholar

Page 52 note 3 Robert E. Mitchell, ‘Survey Materials Collected in the Developing Countries: obstacles to comparisons’, in ibid. p. 226.

Page 52 note 4 Catt, C. C., ‘Surveying Peasant Farmers – some experiences’, in Journal of Agricultural Economics, XVII, 1, 05 1966, pp. 99–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar There is in this case the additional argument that if people from outside are required to learn about a particular area they may end up knowing more than those who were actually raised there.

Page 54 note 1 S. Gregory, ‘Rainfall Reliability’, in Thomas and Whittington (eds.), op. cit. p. 57.

Page 54 note 2 McPherson, W. W. and Johnston, Bruce F., ‘Distinctive Features of Agricultural Development in the Tropics’, in Southworth, Herman M. and Johnston, Bruce F. (eds.), Agricultural Development and Economic Growth (Ithaca, 1967), p. 189.Google Scholar

Page 55 note 1 See Reutlinger, Shlomo, Techniques for Project Appraisal under Uncertainty (Baltimore, 1970),Google Scholar World Bank Staff Occasional Paper No. 10, for an excellent description of the use of a stochastic simulation technique to aggregate probabilities of several dependent variables in a production of cost relation.

Page 56 note 1 Miracle, Marvin P., ‘Agricultural Economics in Africa: trends in theory and method’, in Miller, Norman N. (ed), Research in Rural Africa (East Lansing, 1969), pt. III. p. 144.Google Scholar