Smallholder Farmers' Choice of Oil Palm Commercialisation Model and Household Welfare in South-Western Ghana (original) (raw)
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Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Oil palm production in Ghana-which is primarily cultivated by smallholders (60%+)-plays an important role in local economies and rural livelihoods. As a multi-functional crop, it is embedded in the everyday life of rural and urban Ghanaians both by individual households and on an industrial level. The sector is currently experiencing a resurgence under Ghana's New Patriotic Party (NPP) rule and is being targeted by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) for yield intensification and increased export production. End goals of these efforts include poverty alleviation, environmentally responsible development efforts, and agricultural diversification in rural areas. We apply Ribot and Peluso's "theory of access" (2003) to assess the barriers and opportunities for smallholder oil palm farmers, and the degree to which these are addressed by RSPO interventions. Our results highlight how Ghanaian smallholders gain many benefits from palm oil production as a source of regular income, a drought-resilient crop, and a source of cooking oil for household use. However, they also report different levels of access to finance, markets, land, and technical support, along with differing views and visions of the oil palm sector's development. The focus of governmental and RSPO initiatives on international trade-based incentives overlooks this diversity and, in particular, the importance of local markets for Ghanaian livelihoods. This poses a threat to women millers and traders, poorer producers, and the local markets they supply who risk losing access to the palm oil supply chain. More generally, these findings illustrate the importance of understanding how markets interact at multiple local to international scales, in order to design interventions that will more equitably reach and benefit local communities.
Achieving Inclusive Oil Palm Commercialisation in Ghana
2022
Oil palm is the most important export crop in Ghana, aside from cocoa. Compared with cocoa, however, oil palm has a more extensive local value chain, including greater opportunity for local industrial and artisanal processing into palm oil and other products, which creates a high potential for employment generation and poverty reduction; as a result oil palm is classified as a priority crop. The selection of oil palm as a priority crop aims to promote agricultural commercialisation through domestic agroindustry development and exports. In spite of this, the oil palm economy has still not achieved its potential, and this begs the question, why? Although it is known in general that commercialisation potential and its benefits are not equally distributed across groups, it is not clear how and why different subgroups (women, men, youth) might benefit differently from the oil palm economy. This brief addresses why different groups of smallholders (women, men, youth) benefit unequally fro...
2021
By successfully including smallholders, the oil palm boom in Southeast Asia has contributed significantly to rural economic development and poverty alleviation, notwithstanding its huge environmental costs, in particular through deforestation. Palm oil production in other world regions is currently picking up, including in Africa. Yet, it is uncertain whether the positive socioeconomic impacts from Southeast Asia can be replicated elsewhere. Little development gain may thus accompany severe environmental harm at these new agricultural frontiers. To shed light on the (prospective) role of oil palm for rural development, we perform a systematic comparison of Ghana's and Indonesia's oil palm sectors at the macro and micro level, focusing on smallholder inclusion, using a mixed-methods approach. We identify important differences in oil palm development policies: Until recently, Ghana's policies were aimed at establishing large-scale plantations and processing facilities, typically under full or partial government control. In contrast, Indonesia early on focused on smallholder involvement and support, coupled with an increasing role of the private sector. These different strategies result in very different agricultural and livelihood outcomes for smallholders in the two countries: Comparing survey data from the two countries, we show that partly artisanal smallholders in Ghana face higher production costs and lower profits-albeit Indonesian smallholders still exhibit a critical yield gap compared to plantations. Also, unlike in Indonesia, the poverty incidence among Ghanaian oil palm producers is increasing. While the Indonesian experience thus clearly highlights the development opportunities of smallholder inclusion into agro-industrial production, our analysis also hints at the challenges that need to be addressed to make this model work under the present conditions at Africa's frontiers.
Land Use Policy
By successfully including smallholders, the oil palm boom in Southeast Asia has contributed significantly to rural economic development and poverty alleviation, notwithstanding its huge environmental costs. Oil palm production in other world regions is currently picking up, including in Africa. Yet it is uncertain whether the positive socioeconomic impacts from Southeast Asia can be replicated elsewhere. Little development gain may thus accompany severe environmental harm if oil palm expansion leads to deforestation. To shed light on the (prospective) role of oil palm for rural development we perform a systematic comparison of Ghana's and Indonesia's oil palm sectors at the macro and micro level, focusing on smallholder inclusion and using a mixed-methods approach. We identify substantial differences in structural conditions and policy foci that have led to two very different oil palm sectors. While the Indonesian experience clearly highlights the development opportunities coming with smallholder inclusion in agro-industrial production, our analysis shows that transferability to the West African context is limited due to regional specificities.
Journal of Biology Agriculture and Healthcare, 2014
A number of improved oil palm production practices have been introduced to assist small-scale oil palm farmers increase yield and improve on their livelihoods. This study was conducted to examine the influence of adoption of improved oil palm production practices on the livelihood assets of oil palm farmers in Kwaebibirem District of the Eastern Region of Ghana. In all, 120 oil palm farmers were randomly selected and interviewed using structured questionnaires. Results revealed farmers' characteristics such as level of education and farm size had significant influence (p<0.05) on the adoption of improved oil palm production practices whilst farmers' age, gender, farming experience did not exhibit significant influence (p>0.05). Significant differences were observed among farmers who fully adopted improved oil palm technology than the non adopters in acquiring the following: more physical assets in the form of houses and household appliances; financial assets such as access to credit, increased income and savings; participation in group activities as a social asset and human capital in the form of ability to pay children's school fees. It is recommended that extension services should cover more farmers who should be encouraged to adopt improved oil palm production farming practices and therefore improve on their livelihood assets.
Palm oil is one of the commodities produced in rural Nigeria whose consumption daily in the human diet and use as an industrial raw material have increased its potentials for income generation and poverty alleviation. This study examined the contribution of palm oil production to income generation among 120 small-scale farmers selected from the farming communities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Responses to a structured interview schedule were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages while profitability was determined with data provided on costs and revenue. Palm oil producers were mainly middle-aged married females with low literacy level and operated on small-scale farms (< 2 ha) grown mainly to Dura variety of oil palm. Most farmers used modern processing methods (motorized hydraulic pressers and combined hydraulic pressers and nut crackers) and incurred ₦3,000 transportation cost and ₦5,000-10,000 labour cost per processing session. The Gross Margin averaged ₦69,600 between 2008 and 2012 while processing cost was ₦0.57 for every ₦1.00 return. The major challenges are labour shortage and yield variation due to climate change while high costs of labour and processing equipment affected profitability. Farmers should form cooperatives to: pool resources and acquire modern equipment so as to increase scale of operations, reduce extraction cost and enhance revenue; access credit; benefit from training on the use of modern processing machines and education on adaptation to climate change
Oléagineux, Corps gras, Lipides, 2005
Based on the results of studies conducted in Ivory Coast and Cameroon, the article proposes an analysis of the family agriculture situation in the oil palm commodity chain, repositioning it within a context of sustainable development issues. At a time when production standards are back on the agenda with so-called ″voluntary commitment″ processes, through ″private standards″ to enable sustainable agriculture, the authors examines the outcome of the previous phases of family agriculture standardization by Estates and State-owned companies between 1960 and 1990, followed by privatization of the sector. The article shows that family agriculture possesses its own rationality which needs to be taken into consideration, if the stakes, over and above guaranteeing ″sustainable oil″, are indeed those of the impact that the palm oil sector has on ″sustainable development″. Starting from that point, the question is no longer: how can family agriculture take on board technical standards designed for other production models, but how can family agriculture take part in the compromises negotiated in the commodity chain in such a way that its logics and operating methods are considered when drawing up production choices? An analysis of surveys on oil palm-based cropping and farming systems makes it possible a) to specify the logics underlying production practices and to show their specificity, b) and reiterate the minimum conditions required in order for this agriculture, which is the major agriculture in some countries, to achieve the socio-economic reproduction level of the household and not only of the plot: access to capital and information, minimum land areas and prices, representation on negotiating bodies. The term "outgrower" is used here to mean all "non-estate" plantations. It covers a diversity of producer types.
International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology, 2023
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees. The production of oil palm from its Fresh Fruit Punches (FFP) is commonly practice in the Santchou Sub-Divison west region of Cameroon. It is mostly done at a small scale by smallholders with at least 1-5 hectares of oil palm plantation. The productivity of oil palm depends on smallholders’ participation in certification and other livelihood strategy. The main objective of this study was to examine smallholders’ participation in oil palm certification and livelihood strategy in Santchou. This study was carried out using the case study approach which enable a field survey to be conducted in order to examine smallholders’ participation in certification and livelihood strategy. A total of 185 questionnaires were administered using a random sampling technique to three targeted communities within the Santchou subdivision. Ten interviews were conducted to complement the questionnaire in generating qualitative data for the study. Data collected was later analyse with the use of statistical data tool such as excel, software and spsss data tool and presented on maps, charts and tables. from the data collected, it was observed that very limited number of smallholder are fully involved in oil palm certification. A large number of smallholder oil palm production are engage in other sources of livelihood as livelihood strategy for survival. It was recommended that due to the enormous benefits of certification for the purpose of high productivity, authorities should make certification a reality amongst smallholders.
Analyzing the Cost and Returns of Smallholder Farmers: A Case of Asante Akim South in Ghana
Sustainable Agriculture Research
Managing crop production as a business among smallholder farmers is a challenge. This farmers’ survey therefore assessed farm activities and their economic implications to smallholder farmers, with special reference on cocoa farmers, using structured questionnaire. Farmers and their household were found to be greatly involved in providing labour for all key farm activities such as weed management, pesticide application and harvesting. This labour was not priced by most farmers and therefore estimated expenditure on managing the farms were lower than actual cost incurred. Cocoa formed 75% of total landholdings with 3-4 acres and < 3acres being the modal farm size for cocoa and supplementary crops (vegetables, plantain, oil palm, cassava and maize) respectively. Although applying fertilizer to cocoa increased yield by over 144%, majority of the farmers did not consistently apply it due to purported high price. Vegetables were the only crop that fertilizer was consistently applied t...
Small Farmers and Market Economy: A Case Study of Dagomba in Northern Ghana
Ghana is characterized by obvious economic disparities between northern and southern Ghana. In this paper, we analyze these disparities and economic growth by examining the current farming structure with reference to land use patterns and farming practices and linkages with the market economy. Using data collected through household surveys from 2004 to 2015 in the Dagomba area, gathered from five compounds of 12 to 14 farmers each, the study concludes that the position of agriculture as a source of income in rural areas has declined rapidly, indicating a potential de-agrarianization in rural Ghana. Nonetheless, in northern Ghana, which is resource-poor, agriculture is still seen as an important income source. Because of the unfavorable position of agriculture in the Ghanaian context, outmigration is occurring from rural to urban areas, especially by male family members, resulting in significant change in household composition (more elderly household heads). Changes in family composition and decreased farm sizes have an important implication for food security and livelihoods of Ghanaian families. All these adversities suggest the need to craft farming systems that encourage increased food production through the introduction of new production technology and crop diversification.