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Structural adjustment and trade

Encouraging Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture in Southern Africa in the Context of Agricultural Services Reform



Authors: M. Whiteside
Publisher: Natural Resource Perspectives, ODI, 1998

Full text of document

Summarises the results of six DFID funded country studies on encouraging sustainable agriculture in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. It emphasises the need for continuing government and donor support for sustainable increases in agricultural productivity which must underpin poverty alleviation. In this context, moves toward fiscal sustainability, though justifiable, will have adverse poverty impacts if pursued too rapidly and inflexibly.

Policy conclusions:

  • Donors and governments need to recognise that to achieve sustainable increases in agricultural productivity will take decades, not years. Long term stability in socio-economic conditions, efforts to reduce transaction costs and to facilitate private enterprise, and more information-sharing, especially with smallholders about future plans, must remain high on the agenda.
  • Government research and extension needs to redress existing biases by prioritising long term sustainability and bringing low external input techniques into the mainstream.
  • The creation of a learning environment at the extension/farmer interface is required, with a ‘basket of choices’ and the encouragement of farmer experimentation. Disincentives to farmer uptake of resource conserving technologies need to be understood and overcome where possible.
  • Changes caused by the liberalised economic environment need to be actively managed to minimise economic hardship and environmental damage.
  • Continued emphasis is needed on community capacity building, with greater involvement by communities and traditional leaders in the management of natural resources.
  • Continued development of farmers’ associations and unions is desirable, with a dose of realism over the extent to which they can represent all smallholders.
  • There needs to be continued decentralisation of administration, with the objective of being more responsive to local conditions and local communities.
  • More systematic and objective evaluation of both government and NGO initiatives, should be combined with a willingness to learn from, and share, experience.

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The full text of the six country reports is also available online