Abstract
Agricultural development is an important focus for many Sub-Saharan African countries, including Tanzania. There has been a focus on promoting agricultural interventions that allow smallholder farmers opportunities to increase their productivity, reduce poverty, and become part of the commercial agricultural sector. Contract farming is one such intervention, and despite its
... read more
popularity, it still remains a debated intervention in terms of its ability to contribute positively to smallholders and agricultural development. This study looks at four large-scale agricultural investments in contract farming in the sugar and rice sectors of Tanzania. The aim of the study is to explore and identify the exchanges and outcomes present in these cases and to explore power, relationship and differentiation. In doing so, this study shows how contract farming investments impact the entire local-level population in different ways, which gives key insights into what drives contract farming schemes.
This study draws on and situates itself in contract farming literature. It explores three phases of contract farming’s popularity and identifies specific gaps in the literature around power and relations. The study builds an analytical framework in order to address these two gaps. The study proposes an analytical framework for looking at relationships within and outside the contract farming schemes. It looks at three key relationships: that between contract farmers and the investors; that between contract farmers and the excluded local population; and that between the excluded local population and the investors. The model characterizes these relationships by identifying the exchanges and outcomes that occur within the relationships. The second part of the analytical framework applies Khan’s concept of holding power to understand how power is distributed both within and outside the contract farming scheme and to identify how power might change over time and in the face of conflict.
This study is based on empirical evidence from four cases: two cases of contract farming in the rice sector and two in the sugar sector in Tanzania. The study uses a mixed-methods approach and draws on household surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions. The four cases are Kilombero Sugar Company Limited, Mtibwa Sugar Estates, Kapunga Rice Plantation Limited, and Mtenda Kyela Rice Supply Company Limited.
For all four cases, contract farmers receive exchanges through engaging in contract farming. These exchanges include access to inputs, credits, loans, and markets. For all of the cases, except the case of Mtibwa Sugar Estates, many contract farmers benefited from contract farming and were able to reinvest income from contract farming into different activities. The Mtibwa case is marked by conflict and tension with the investor, which has resulted in farmers starting to leave the scheme. The study also shows that the excluded local populations face a mixture of positive and negative impacts from the contract farmers and the investors. Holding power is explored for each of these cases.
show less
