Agricultural Commercialization &

J. Hinderink, J.J. Sterkenburg

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781000448061
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1987. The object of this book is to show the nature and the constraints of the commercialization of agriculture in one of the world's major problem areas, Sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural commercialization started here centuries ago, albeit in small, pockets. It expanded sharply during the colonial period when the sub-continent became integrated into the world's economy. After independence the nature of this integration did not structurally change and the basic characteristics o agricultural commercialization remained unaltered. After an analysis of this process during the colonial period, the study focuses on post-colonial government policies and on spatial variation in the commercialization of Africa's agriculture. Differences in environmental and socio-economic conditions, production performance and government policy are dealt with on two geographical scales: in the fist at the level of macro-regions and individual countries, and the second, by means of case studies at the regional, village and project level. Thee field-work based studies each centre on a specific aspect of commercialization process in a wide variety of countries, viz Swaziland, Sudan, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Mali and Kenya. The final part of the book relates the subject of commercialization and rural development to Africa's present agricultural crisis.

Part I The Macro View

DOI: 10.4324/9781003209591-2

Chapter 1 The Concept of Agricultural Commercialization and its Role in Development Thinking

DOI: 10.4324/9781003209591-3

A major question in the abundant literature on agricultural growth and development in Sub-Saharan Africa is how to encourage peasants primarily engaged in subsistence farming to become market oriented, i.e. to produce surpluses over and above their own demands where staple food crops are concerned and/or to devote land and labour to new crops for sale: in brief, how to stimulate the process of agricultural commercialization. Many studies deal with this process without explicitly mentioning the term agricultural commercialization, but even if it is used, the actual meaning of the concept is seldom clearly defined. Often it is tacitly assumed that readers are familiar with the concept. The term commercialization as such is clear enough, being derived from commerce, i.e. (to make money out of) the exchange and distribution of goods. In the French literature on the subject the term commercialisation" is commonly applied to the marketing aspect. But commercialization is also used in a wider sense and then it includes the sphere of production as is implied in the terms ‘commercial farming" and, for that matter, ‘agricultural commercialization". An analysis of the relevant literature reveals that agricultural commercialization is interpreted in different ways and is measured by various criteria with the consequence that different aspects of the phenomenon are taken into account.

Most authors stress the orientation of agricultural production at the farm level to distinguish between commercial and subsistence farming. In other words, the main question is to what extent production for sale prevails over production for self-consumption by members of the unit of production. Sales of incidental surpluses do not transform agricultural units automatically into commercial farms. Commercial farming, according to Carpenter ‘essentially ... involves the idea of profit and loss in financial terms, and a wage earning labour system. Commercial farming is not merely the production of a surplus crop' (Carpenter, 1973 p. 1). Commercialization of agriculture is thus considered as deliberate production for the market and much attention is paid to identify its various indices such as the gross value of total farm output, the degree of importance of purchased inputs, the share of hired labour as a percentage of total labour input, the time spent on growing cash crops as compared to the time involved in growing crops for self-consumption, and the acreage planted with crops for sale as a percentage of total cultivated acreage. On the basis of these indices various typologies of farms have been made according to their degree of commercialization. Well-known in this respect are Ruthenberg’s classification taking into account the share of sales in relation to gross returns and Nakajima's model with the proportion of marketed output and hired labour as major dimensions (Nakajima, 1970; Ruthenberg, 1971).

Besides the production orientation at the farm level, the personal characteristics of the agricultural producers themselves have been taken as a major variable to distinguish between commercial and subsistence farmers. This means that the emphasis is not so much on quantifiable economic criteria but rather on qualitative ones related to the attitudes, motivations and behaviour patterns of idealtype subsistence and commercial farmers. The underlying assumption in these studies is that ‘traditional’ or subsistence farmers are resistant to change whereas receptivity to innovations is considered characteristic for 'modem' or market-oriented farmers. In his analysis of the motivations, values and attitudes of subsistence farmers Rogers gives the following characteristics of what he calls peasants: inclined to mistrust which negatively affects co-operation and organization beyond the family circle, lack of interest in innovations, fatalistic, village-centred, not very individualistic, a low level of aspiration, limited attention for the future, and little inclined to save and invest (Rogers, 1970). The production orientation of the farmer is also sometimes stressed. A clear example in this respect is Whittlesey’s definition of subsistence and commercial farmers: \ .. if he grows his crops or raises his animals with the object of selling, he is a commercial farmer; if he merely sells what happens to have been left over, or what he is forced to part with by emergencies, he is a subsistence farmer' (Whittlesey, 1936). Hill pays particular attention to the behaviour and personal characteristics of commercial farmers, termed ‘rural capitalists', emphasizing their entrepreneurial qualities, co-operativeness, individualism, and ‘planning-mindedness' (Hill, 1963, 1970).

Commercialization of agriculture is also understood in terms of the characteristics of the communities to which agricultural producers belong. Socio-cultural aspects of communities are emphasized rather than the behavioural characteristics of individuals, though some authors do not make a sharp distinction between the two levels of scale. These less-commercialized communities are described in terms of their isolated position vis-a-vis the outside world which negatively affects the specialization of production and trade, technological innovation and social change. They are considered conspicuous for their hierarchical authority structure and the subordination of individual to communal interests. They are accused of the prevalence of personal over contractual relationships, and the importance of social and cultural considerations in economic decision-making. Their possibilities for development are considered to be negligible because of their strict social control and regulating social institutions, which limit still further the already small possibilities of choice for subsistence farmers in the field of land use, cultivation techniques and crops grown, in view of the poor level of technology and the existing infrastructural and economic constraints (Abercrombie, 1961, 1967; Wharton, 1970; for a critical evaluation of the constraints of customary land tenure on agricultural development cf. Gerschenberg, 1971).

Some authors regard agricultural commercialization as a process associated with social change, namely from communal cultivators to peasant commodity producers, against the background of their incorporation into a capitalist economy without becoming capitalist producers themselves. Through rights and obligations they remain involved in village- and lineage-based social systems, and their ultimate security and subsistence continue to lie in certain rights to the land and the labour of the family (Saul and Woods, 1971). In general, simple technology, unpaid family labour and the cultivation of crops meant both for sale and for self-consumption characterize peasant commodity production. As many costs of production are low, the risks of profits being converted into losses and looming bankruptcy do not really arise in peasant commodity production. Peasants may even counter falling prices by increasing their marketed output in order to satisfy irreducible income requirements. From a historical point of view processes of‘peasantization’ are thought characteristic of hierarchically structured societies whose power holders were used by colonial administrations as ready-made agents to push through the cultivation of crops for export. On the other hand, peasantization is not considered as a process typical of the colonial era only. In his analysis of peasantization and rural political movements in West Africa, Post has shown how in export-oriented economies the impact of the world economy and of the state on agricultural producers explains the continuing existence of a highly differentiated mass of market-cum-subsistence farmers (Post, 1972. See also in this respect the various studies dealing with the peasant commodity mode of production in the following readers: Arrighi and Saul, 1973; Gutkind and Wallerstein, 1976; Palmer and Parsons, 1977; Klein, 1980).

Some French anthropologists also take due account of the importance of Africa’s incorporation into the capitalist world economy. However, they do not emphasize the process of peasantization, but rather explain agricultural commercialization in terms of the articulation of different modes of production. In their view, the existing domestic mode of production of African societies has been subordinated to the capitalist one. The domestic mode is not completely destroyed, but negatively affected by the capitalist one, and is maintained to the advantage of the latter. The term articulation thus refers to the preservation of a modified, precapitalist mode of production together with a capitalist one. In this way, the price of cash crops can be kept low because agricultural producers to a large extent grow food to meet their households' requirements. Meillassoux interprets this articulation process in phases of coercion, accommodation, and disruption. Therefore, agricultural commercialization ultimately leads to land shortage, over-cultivation, and land degradation, with deteriorating levels of living and incidental famines (Meillassoux, 1964, 1975; Rey. 1971, 1976; Geschiere. 1982).

A recent synoptic view on the political economy of West African agriculture and the nature of agricultural commodity production stresses the importance of labour productivity and the role of the state (Hart. 1982). The expansion of small-scale production for overseas markets in West Africa was not accompanied by any substantial rise in labour productivity. In the absence of progressing industrialization and mechanization the growth of a marketed output took place chiefly through a more intensive use of the existing factors of production, viz. land and labour. The major impediment towards higher productivity and improvement in collective welfare is seen in the political and legal framework and the extractive nature of the state, both colonial and post-colonial. The state's efforts to preserve its own material and social base causes the preservation of a backward agriculture - whether market oriented or not.

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The various interpretations of agricultural commercialization partly overlap, partly ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Figures
• Tables
• Introduction
• Part I The Macro View
• Part II The Case Studies
• References
• Appendix The Research Project on Agricultural Commercialization in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Authors’ Index
• Subject Index