Strategies For Small Farmer Development

An Empirical Study Of Rural Development Projects In The Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Bolivia, Columbia, Mexico, Paraguay And Peru

Elliott R. Morss, John K. Hatch, Donald R. Mickelwait, Charles F. Sweet

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367288921
• eBook ISBN: 9781000313307
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This volume provides information on what can be done to increase the well-being and productivity of the small farmer in the Third World, focusing on design and implementation of rural development projects in the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.

Annex H

COLOMBIA

Colombia

• Area: 439,735 square miles
• Population: 23,925,000 (est. 1974)
• Population growth rate: 3.4%
• Density per square mile: 54.4
• GNP per capita: $370
• GNP per capita growth rate: 2.3%
• Capital: Bogota (2,825,000) (est. 1973)
• Largest cities: Medellin (1,091,600), Cali (1,003,900), Baranquilla (682,300), Bucaramanga (324,400), Cartagena (315,200) (est. 1972)
• Major language: Spanish
• Religion: Roman Catholic
• Literacy rate: 70–80%

The Cáqueza Project, ICA Rural Development - This project covers the shaded area

east of Bogotá in eastern Cundinamarca.

ICA Rural Development Pilot Project for Northern Cauca - This project covers the shaded area

which is the State of Valle de Cauca.

Futuro Para La Ninez (Futures for Children) - This project covers the shaded area

which is the State of Antioguia.

The Cáqueza Project (ICA Rural Development Project, for Eastern Cundinamarca, Colombia)¹

I. Project Background

Cáqueza is one of six rural development projects initiated by the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) in 1971. Its name is taken from the major municipality and market town which serves as the center for nine rural communities in the eastern portion of the Department of Cundinamarca, southeast of the capital of Bogotá. The project was conceived as an experimental program to reach small farmers, based upon studies of other projects with similar goals and visits in 1970 by ICA central and regional staff to the Puebla Project in Mexico. The ICA commission to Puebla returned to Colombia convinced of the value of experimental plots conducted on small farmers’ land to transfer technology and increase productivity. They were also convinced of the need to transcend productivity considerations and create an integral development approach which combined social and economic considerations. Both have been objectives of the Caqueza Project.

ICA was given responsibility over all extension services of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture in 1967. It performs basic agricultural research as well — mostly at ICA Headquarters at Tibaitatá near Bogotá. ICA assistance to small farmers is coordinated with other Colombian government agencies which provide credit (the Caja Agraria) and land distribution and titles (INCORA, the Agrarian Reform Institute). The Cáqueza Project is directed by an ICA regional staff of 16 professionals and subprofessionals, assisted by research and evaluation support from the Canadian government’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which has maintained two full-time professionals in Colombia since shortly after project initiation.

The project area embraces nine communities with 12,218 families farming 227,200 hectares (561,184 acres). A total of 976 farm families with land holdings of 2125 hectares (5249 acres) are considered to be the project participants.

II. Local Environment

The nine communities forming the Cáqueza project are composed of mountain-side farms, ranging in altitude from 900 to 3000 meters. To a visitor driving into Cáqueza, there does not appear to be one square acre of level land in the entire area. While 64.5 percent of all farms are below five hectares in size, 42.3 percent of the total area is made up of farms with 30 hectares or more — suggesting a wide diversity between the many small farmers and the few very large landholders in the region. Average annual income in 1972 was estimated at $645 per farm family with 7.5 members — a per capita income of $86.

Of the 976 farm families assisted by the project, 42 percent have two hectares or less, while none of the participants have more than three hectares. This was a requirement when the project was initiated, since it was directed specifically at small farmers.

Colombia is one of the more developed countries in the Third World and both the ICA staff and the farmer participants in the project reflect this advancement. ICA is reported to have more than 150 Ph.D.’s trained abroad on its staff and correspondingly larger numbers of well-educated and trained holders of lesser degrees. In addition, ICA operates a rural development school offering masters degrees as part of its Tibaitatá Headquarters. Farmers in Cáqueza were using large amounts of fertilizer on certain crops before the project was initiated. Credit is of great importance to small farmers, since, as will be shown, cash is not available for necessary inputs? thus, the maintenance of a good credit rating is considered essential. The Colombian government has made a good deal of credit available to smallholders and there are private sources which almost all small farmers in the Caqueza area draw upon.

Since the use of credit increases the risk of the farmer in years of bad harvest, repayment will be difficult and a subsistence income base may be threatened? credit is only used when absolutely necessary. However, credit is common among Cáqueza small farmers for potatoes, onions, tomatoes and other crops which require cash inputs. Farmers are very reluctant to use credit for corn, which can be grown without significant cash inputs. In addition, to minimize the possibility of loss, farmers will grow many different varieties of the same vegetable, e.g. beans, since some beans are resistant to frost, some to drought, some to rain, etc.

While 50 percent of the area’s farmers have completed one to three years of primary education, estimates of functional literacy are much lower. Land titles are held by nearly 70 percent of all farmers, and those who rent land have reasonable security that their plots will be available in future crop cycles.

III. Dynamics: Idea Evolution and Project Design

After the ICA commission returned from Puebla, a plan was developed which was to become the Cáqueza project. The area was chosen because of the large number of small farmers with low income levels. It moved ahead on three fronts: first, beginning in early 1971, the project staff began a campaign to unite leaders of the local municipalities (which correspond to districts or subcounties) in an attack on rural poverty. The project helped to organize municipal development councils, composed of farmers, clergy, businessmen and all local government leaders in an attempt to mobilize resources behind their new campaign. In addition, they attempted to work with small farmers’ groups, or councils, as one lesson from Puebla was the success in working through small farm units, rather than with individual farmers. Although local non-farm resources have played a minor role in the project, the activity has continued, and school teachers, vocational teachers and many of the better educated citizens in the market towns of the region take part in some extension programs, meet with farmers on pre-arranged days and organize three-day workshops in an attempt to improve the transfer of technical knowledge to project participants.

The second effort of the project was straightforward extension services by full-time staff, offered on market days, at community fairs and in private homes. Wherever and whenever farmers congregated, demonstrations were organized and farmers persuaded to attend. In all, in the eight months between March and October 1971, the project staff estimated they held nearly 200 meetings, with a total farm attendance of over 7000 persons, more than half of them males. The extensionists were offering the technological knowledge gained at the Tibaitatá research station on improved seeds, planting densities, fertilizer use, weeding, insecticides, fungicides, etc. In addition, home economics and nutrition were discussed with rural women.

Interlocked with the promotion activity was the actual demonstration of improved techniques on land held by small farmers, inputs and technical assistance being supplied by the project. In 1971, 19 plots were conducted, 1000 squaremeter (seven quarters-of-an acre) plots in corn and 400 squaremeter (12 tenths-of-an-acre) plots in potatoes. No special incentives were required to obtain farmer cooperation. Results from the trials on small farmer land were good, but adoption rates were estimated to be low by project staff.

Although it was undertaken in 1972, the creation of baseline data on the project area can be considered as the third part of the evolution and design of the project. Baseline data were created by a survey of more than 600 farm families, and included very detailed demographic, social and economic studies. Some of the most useful information concerned the cropping associations¹ and the relative percentages of the farmers’ land devoted to particular uses. Subsequent reevaluation of the income data obtained as a result of the farm surveys revealed that it was unreliable, due to farmers’ reluctance to offer income and expens...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• ANNEX A Guide to Project Write-ups
• ANNEX B The Gambia
• ANNEX C Ghana
• ANNEX D Kenya
• ANNEX E Lesotho
• ANNEX F Nigeria
• ANNEX G Bolivia
• ANNEX H Colombia
• ANNEX I Ecuador
• ANNEX J Mexico
• ANNEX K Paraguay
• ANNEX L Peru