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African Crop Science Journal
African Crop Science Society
ISSN: 1021-9730 EISSN: 2072-6589
Vol. 9, Num. 1, 2001, pp. 331-338
African Crop Science Journal

African Crop Science Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2001, pp. 331-338

Changes in African Smallholder Agriculture in the Twentieth Century and the Challenges of the Twenty-First

S. J. Carr
Private Bag 5, Zomba, Malawi

Code Number: CS 01064

ABSTRACT

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed profound changes in smallholder agriculture in many parts of Africa. There was a rapid spread of exotic staple food crops such as maize, cassava and sweet potatoes. In many cases the adoption of these crops led to increases in productivity as they replaced millets and sorghum. In addition the development of new trade routes opened the way to a remarkable expansion in the production of traditional and exotic export crops .There was also a more limited uptake of introduced technologies such as ox-ploughing. In many cases the move into cash cropping resulted in changes in the farming system. These occurred in situations where the growing of perennial crops or access to markets encouraged people to abandon a truly shifting cultivation for a more static lifestyle. A striking feature of these developments was the speed at which many of these major innovations were adopted by large numbers of smallholders. This undermined the theory that African smallholders were basically conservative. The changes and production increases of the first part of the century were followed by the static situation of the past forty years. Despite the introduction of fertiliser, new varieties and intensive research and extension efforts there has been little progress in raising yields, preserving soil fertility or maintaining per capita production of food and cash crops. It is these issues which present the major challenges for the coming century.

Key Words: Cash cropping, changes in productivity, exotic crops, smallholder farmers

RÉSUMÉ

La moitié du vingtième siècle a vu des changements profonds dans l' agriculture du petit exploitant dans plusieures régions de l' Afrique. Il y eut des expansions des cultures alimentaires exotiques tels que le maïs, le manioc, et la patate douce. Dans plusieurs cas l' adoption de ces nouvelles cultures a conduit à l' augmentation de la productivité en remplaçant le millet et le sorgho. En plus le développement des nouvelles voies de commrce ont ouvert le chemin pour une expansion remarquable dans la production des cultures traditionnelles et des cultures exotiques d' exportation. Il y eut aussi plus de limites d'intrats des technoloies introduites telles que la culture attelée. Dans plusieurs cas la tournure vers des cultures de revenu a provoqué des changements des systèmes culturaux. Ceci est apparu là où on pratique des cultures perraines ou l'accès au marché a encouragé la population a abandonné la culture itinérante pour plus de style de vie statique. Une caractéristique remarquable de ces développements est la vitesse à laquelle quelques de ces innovations ont été adoptées par un grand nombre de petits exploitants. Ceci a ébranlé la théorie stipulant que les petits exploitants africains étaient principalement conservateurs. Les changements et les augmentations de productions de la première moitié du siècle ont été suivis par une situation statique des quarante années passées. Malgré l' introduction des engrais, des nouvelles variétés, l'intense recherche et les efforts de vulgarisation, il eut très peu de progrès dans l 'augmentation de la production, la conservation de la fertilité du sol ou le maintien de la production alimentaire et des cultures de revenu par capita. Ces sont ces questions qui constituent le défi du siècle à venir.

Mots Clés: Culture de revenu, chagement de la productivité, cultures exotiques, petits exploitants fermiers

INTRODUCTION

The 20th century witnessed profound changes in farming in most regions of the world. The changes in African smallholder farming may not have been as spectacular as in some other continents but in many areas the pattern of farming to-day is quite different to that of a hundred years ago. The rate of change has not been uniform and it is not difficult to identify two major periods in many countries. The first was marked by significant increases in per capita crop production as families adopted higher yielding exotic food crops and added cash cropping to their subsistence farming. These changes were largely the result of farmer to farmer information exchange and the provision of non-agricultural stimuli to production. The latter included a peaceful environment, the availability of new trade routes, the spread of consumer goods and taxation policies (Carr, 1997). What became quite clear was that African smallholders responded with alacrity to innovations, new crops and earning opportunities which they clearly saw to be to their advantage.

The second period, generally starting in the 1960s was marked by a rapid increase in expenditure on agricultural research and extension, the promotion of new technologies and the availability of purchased inputs such as fertiliser, seeds and pesticides. Despite these efforts the per capita production in most countries was either static or declined. Africa's share of the world primary product market decreased while food imports increased. This paper will trace some of the reasons for the success of the first period, the declines of the second and the challenges which these pose for the future.

The years of expanding production

Few counties in Africa were not touched by the rapid spread of crops from the Americas in the first part of the century. Cocoa from Central America spread along the West Coast of Africa to become a major smallholder cash crop. Cocoa production in the Gold Coast (Ghana) grew from 2,400 tons in 1902 to 176,000 tons in 1919 (Hill, 1956). Although cassava had reached West Africa in the 17th century it had not become a staple two hundred years later and was still not a major food crop in Nigeria in 1920 (Faulkner and Mackie,1933). Over the following decades, however, it spread rapidly across the region to become the staple food of millions of people. On the other side of the continent cassava was barely known at the turn of the century in Uganda and yet was being grown by hundreds of thousands of people thirty years later. Another American root crop, sweet potatoes, was also growing in popularity. It was so rare in Northern Uganda at the start of the century that sweet potato vines could be used to replace cattle as part of a dowry (Driberg, 1923) and yet by 1935 about 250,000 hectares were recorded (Tothill, 1940).

In the eastern half of the continent maize started to replace sorghum and millets. Maize was unknown in Uganda in the mid 19th century and was not a mainstay in the diet of most of east and central Africa until well into the 20th century (Miracle, 1966). In 1932 there were 28,000 hectares of maize in Uganda and 400,000 hectares of millet (Tothill, 1940). Thirty years later those figures were being reversed and maize had become the dominant food crop in much of the region.

In the savannah areas of west Africa sorghum and millet remained the dominant grains but medium staple cotton and groundnuts from the Americas were spreading rapidly. Groundnut exports from the region grew from nothing to 500,000 tons per year in the first thirty years of the century (Faulkner and Mackie,1933) and doubled again over the next 20 years.

Cotton sales from Nigeria moved from 700 bales in 1903 to 12,700 in 1909 (Johnson,1926). In Chad the area under cotton grew from nil in 1928 to 280,000 hectares in 1962 (Thomas and Whittington,1969).

Cotton also had a significant influence on smallholder farming in Uganda: cotton exports were 54 bales in 1904, 200,000 in 1925 and 400,000 in 1937 (Tothill, 1940).There was a comparable development in Tanganyika 20 years later. Coffee growing was expanding rapidly on both sides of the continent and had become a source of cash for millions of people by the middle of the century.

Two major factors were therefore responsible for the sometimes spectacular increased productivity of African smallholders in the first half of the 20th century.The first was the growth in productivity per unit area of land resulting from a switch from traditional cereals, legumes and root crops to the higher yielding exotic species. Although little comparative yield data is available from this period the remarkable speed at which these introduced crops spread across the continent provides a clear indication of the advantages which farmers gained from them. The second source of growth was the expansion in cultivated area per family as cash crops were added to the traditional subsistence crops. In the wetter regions this involved the establishment of plots of cultivated perennials in the forest. Elsewhere there was an expansion in the area of annual cropping to allow for the planting of cotton and groundnuts. As a result of these changes African smallholders not only continued to feed themselves with an absolute minimum of imported food but were able to become major global producers of cocoa, cotton, coffee, groundnuts and palm products.

There were other changes of a lesser nature. One of these was the adoption of ox cultivation in savannah areas across the continent in which cattle keeping people lived in areas suitable for the new annual cash crops. Adoption was often rapid as in the case of Teso district in Uganda where ox plough numbers increased from 282 in 1924 to 15,388 in 1936 (Tothill,1940). Diets were also broadened as families not only changed their staple foods but added exotic vegetables such as tomatoes and brassicas to their traditional local plant sources. Diets were further improved by the rapid spread of introduced trees such as mangos, pawpaws and avocados.

At the continental level the first half of the century witnessed the growth of smallholder production, an increase in cash incomes and a widening of dietary choices. Changes were also taking place at the micro level resulting in alterations in the farming pattern. Men became more heavily involved in farm work as they took on responsibility for cash cropping and ox ploughing (Carr, 1982). Of more long term significance was the pressure for communities to become more static. The planting of perennial crops, the clearing of land for ox ploughing or the siting of fixed market points for cash crops all tended to discourage truly shifting cultivation and eased people into more settled and intensive patterns of farming.

The striking transformation of much of Africa's smallholder agriculture in the first half of the last century provides two major lessons which should not be forgotten in developing future strategies. The first is the role of introduced plants and technologies in profoundly changing African farming. There are many areas of Africa to-day in which every crop on the farm is an exotic of comparatively recent introduction. The second is the openness of African smallholders to innovations. Millions of farmers changed their basic crops, their diets, their working habits and their patterns of settlement in a short period of time. These changes relied little on formal extension or government pressure but were the spontaneous response to crops or technologies which provided greater output for less work or gave cash rewards which were deemed to be attractive in relation to the effort involved. What is remarkable is how often recent observers of the African scene have ignored this evidence. Claiming that introducing "foreign" technologies is inappropriate, and that African smallholders are intensely conservative, they have overlooked the experience of the first half of the 20th century and lost the value of the lessons which that period has to offer in developing future strategies.

Stagnation

Since the mid-1960's there has been a reversal of the major gains made by African smallholders during the previous 50 years. At the regional level there has been a dramatic decline in agricultural exports with Africa losing a substantial share of its traditional markets. At the same time there has been an increase in food imports. This is illustrated in Table 1.

Nigeria moved from being the world's largest exporter of palm produce and groundnuts to being an importer of palm oil from Malaysia and having a minor role in the groundnut market. Uganda moved from being a major cotton producer to being barely self-sufficient in that commodity. Ghana relinquished its position as the leading cocoa producer to Brazil and the West African rubber industry was largely lost to Malaysia. There was not only a dramatic decline in per capita cash crop production but in many countries food crops suffered the same fate. This has led to increased under-nutrition and a rapid expansion in food aid and purchased food imports.

Why did a continent which had so many success stories in the first half of the century fall into a state of static or declining per capita agricultural output in more recent years when crop production in much of the rest of the developing world was expanding? Why also did it take place during a period which witnessed a dramatic increase in investment in government agricultural research and extension services combined with a proliferation of donor funded agricultural development projects? The study of past failures is not a popular occupation but unless the reasons for this stagnation are understood it is difficult to see how more appropriate strategies can be developed for the future.

The basic causes of the decline in per capita crop production over much of Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years can be broadly classified as political, economic and agronomic. This paper is more concerned with the last, but the first two cannot be ignored in any realistic assessment of the situation, and all three will be touched on in the following sections.

Civil unrest and a lack of security are the most obvious political disincentives to a stable and successful agricultural sector. This has proved a major factor in the decline in farm output in a number of countries. Even in the many areas which have been relatively peaceful and secure there have been other political factors which have had a negative impact on farmers. High on the list of these must be those policies which have led to the closing of processing facilities (e.g. cotton ginneries in Uganda and Tanzania) and the deterioration of transport networks. This can be seen in both rail and road systems in a number of countries and has resulted in delayed deliveries to the market, heightened transport costs and reduced farm gate prices.

The decline in world prices for agricultural products is often cited as an excuse for the fall in Africa's share of world markets. This ignores the fact that Brazilian farmers are successfully producing cocoa which was once West Africa's prerogative. Malaysian farmers have replaced Nigerians as the world suppliers of palm oil. Asian farmers produce the cotton which no longer comes from Uganda and Thai farmers export rice to Africa to offset local farmers' deficits. Low prices have hit farmers everywhere but African farmers have suffered more than most from other policies which have deterred them from producing for the market. These have included marketing boards which have offered farmers as little as 30% of the sale price of their crops (e.g. cocoa in Ghana and tobacco in Malawi). Government inflationary fiscal policies may have forced the same farmers to pay 50 or 60% interest on their seasonal input loans. Add to this the depressing impact of widespread currency over-valuation in the 1970's and it is not difficult to see why so many smallholders stopped producing surpluses for anything more than an often restricted local market. They thereby stopped agriculture from being the engine of economic growth which it proved to be in other developing regions. The next section will focus on agronomic challenges, but if these are addressed in isolation from broader political and economic policies they will be in danger of simply producing more efficient subsistence farmers which is not the ambition of most rural people.

Agricultural issues

The second half of the 20th century witnessed a striking increase in population growth rates in Africa. These had been of the order of 1 to 1.5 % per annum prior to 1950 (E.A. Royal Commission 1955) but quickly surged to 3 to 3. 5% in the 1960's.Not only did the numbers of people increase rapidly but there was also a change in dependency ratios with a rising number of children in comparison with adults. Suddenly there was a need to double agricultural output every 20 years just to maintain per capita production. This was an unprecedented challenge but it affected Asia in just the same way as Africa. The former went through a difficult period but was then able to increase farm output at a faster rate than population growth. Why has Africa not been able to do the same?

At the purely agricultural level there would appear to be two main reasons. The first concerns soil fertility and the second plant breeding. Asian farmers had centuries of experience in continuously cultivating the same plot of land. Over hundreds of years they had evolved strategies for conserving their soils and maintaining fertility through the use of organic manures. African farmers on the other hand had been fortunate enough to be able to feed themselves and preserve their environment by shifting cultivation. Natural vegetation under long fallows did all that was necessary to restore soils which had been eroded or degraded during a brief period of cultivation. Such farmers were suddenly called upon to develop systems of continuous cultivation in difficult environments and attempt to achieve what had taken centuries elsewhere in one or two generations. It is hardly surprising that many have failed to do so.

Successful continuous cultivation requires some method of replenishing the nutrients removed by crops. Asian farmers who had relied on organic methods of replenishment to feed a modest population began to supplement these with inorganic fertilisers in order to meet the challenge of feeding hundreds of millions of extra people. Their governments made sure that fertilisers were available and affordable and the success of Asian farmers in raising crop output is one of the major agricultural achievements of the 20th century. Most African farmers, with the exception of one or two pockets of traditionally dense population (e.g. Kano, Nigeria), had little experience of using organic manures or intensive methods of soil conservation and restoration. Added to this were poor government policies and declining cash incomes which resulted in minimal fertiliser use by most of the continent's smallholders. Table 2 compares the Asian and African experience in this respect.

The enormous difference in fertiliser use between the two continents goes a long way to explain many of the differences in yield levels of rainfed crops achieved by their respective farmers.

While starving plants are likely to be unproductive whatever their genetic constitution, it is also true that plants with an inappropriate genetic base will not be able to make the best use of improved soils. The second half of the 20th century saw striking advances in the yield potential of a number of major crops. In some cases (maize, wheat, rice) average farm yields in many parts of the world doubled or trebled after having been stagnant for a century. This derived from a combination of increasing the harvest index, hybridisation, disease control and improved plant nutrition. Unfortunately many African farmers derived little benefit from any of these. Table 3 details the relationship between increases in overall production and the area under each of the main crops. This shows that for Africa's principal crops of sorghum, millets, roots, tubers and pulses the gains in production derived entirely from increases in area. Only rice and maize showed increases in yield. The table also shows that only rice (a minor crop on the continental scale) had production increases equal to population growth rates.

It is noticeable that the two crops which show increases in yield (maize and rice) are both of wider concern than Africa. This has meant that African farmers have been able to benefit from quality breeding work carried out elsewhere. This in its turn has provided plants which respond well to fertiliser and this has made it more profitable to use purchased inputs for these crops. There has been little progress made with the breeding of daylight sensitive sorghums required by farmers in the savannah, nor with millets, daylight sensitive cowpeas, indeterminate pigeon peas or phaseolus beans which all form an important part of the diet in different parts of the continent.

Stagnation has therefore derived from poor political and economic policies at the national level, from problems of switching to continuous cultivation at short notice, from a lack of effective access to adequate inorganic fertiliser and a paucity of improved planting material which is truly responsive to smallholders' needs. What lessons can be learned from this situation to help to develop strategies which will move African smallholders back into a more encouraging situation such as that which typified the first half of the 20th century? That is the subject of the next section.

Strategies for the future

The past thirty years provide one clear message for African governments and that is that there is no point in exhorting farmers to increase production when government policies are resulting in insecurity, poor communications, inaccessible farm inputs, expensive credit and low farm gate prices. The popular myth of the 1960's that African smallholders were not economically responsive has been dispelled by their refusal to produce for a market which has been rendered unprofitable by national policies. Politicians cannot rely on improved agricultural technology to absolve them from the need for creating a favourable social and economic environment in which farmers can look for the most advantageous way of using their resources of land and labour. The responsibility for the loss of Africa's share of global primary commodity markets lies firmly with governments and not with smallholder farmers. Good governance has a crucial role to play in the restoration of a more prosperous rural sector in the future. What then are the possibilities of restoring smallholder incomes?

The rapid rise in smallholder cash earnings in the earlier part of the last century was the result of expanding market demand and favourable marketing conditions. Where is there an expanding market demand to-day? There are two which are becoming increasingly important. The first derives from the growing prosperity of developed countries and their demand for luxury products and for organically grown produce. This is not an easy market but it is one which African countries should not ignore. The second is the expanding urban population within Africa itself. This poses serious problems for urban planners but real opportunities for farmers. Nigerian farmers now make their money from selling food to forty million urban dwellers. The rehabilitation of the degraded lands of Machakos in Kenya has resulted from the profits derived from the sale of high value crops to neighbouring Nairobi. Urbanisation can be a boon to farmers provided that governments play their part in ensuring good access to markets. A study in Kenya in the 1980's (World Bank internal memo) revealed that farmers delivering maize from Kitale to Nairobi had to pay 20 bribes to minor officials and policemen between the farm gate and the millers. Free access to markets is not just an international issue.

At the farm level the clear lesson of the past century has been that the restoration of soil fertility has become the most pressing issue in many areas. This has to be addressed at three levels. The first is research. In many tropical situations it is not yet clear how soil fertility can be increased and then maintained over the long term under continuous cultivation and with methods which are practicable for small scale farmers. Despite this there has been a paucity of research in this field. Many African research station reports are dominated by plant breeding and not soil fertility restoration. The lesson of the past 50 years is that this subject must come off the back burner.

The second formidable challenge is to do with extension. The crops which farmers welcomed so readily 100 years ago all offered greater productivity for less work. The intensification of land use on the other hand calls for more work, as Asian farmers have known for centuries. Green manuring , composting, agro-forestry and the transporting of farm yard manure all require extra labour without producing any more benefits than would have been achieved by a long, labour free fallow. This explains farmers' lack of enthusiasm and provides a tough challenge to extension staff. It demands heightened levels of sensitivity to farmers' problems and enhanced skills of communication. So far those skills have not been that obvious and changes in land management are progressing at a dangerously slow pace.

Thirdly there is the role that fertiliser must play in this process. Africa is draining its soils of nutrients and is paying the price in depressed yields. Organic methods alone, important as they are in improving soil quality, are not able to make up for the nutrient losses of recent decades. Africa as a whole needs to increase its average fertiliser use fourfold to meet the needs of its current level of production (Henao and Baanante, 1999). More still would be required to raise yields. This is largely a policy issue involving the donor community in many cases. It is complicated by current donor insistence on the working of free market forces for African smallholders when farmers in most of the rest of the world are subsidised. It is being further confused by movements in the donor countries, concerned at the excessive use of fertiliser in some parts of their own region, which then wish to discourage fertiliser use everywhere. This issue provides a formidable challenge to governments, donors and NGO's to present a balanced picture of this tool which is essential to help smallholders break out of the current stagnation of their yields and per capita production.

Finally there is the role of plant breeding. African farmers welcomed new plants with alacrity in the early part of the last century. They have continued to adopt plants which they see to be advantageous to them. The rapid spread of hybrid maize in a dozen countries on the eastern side of the continent is clear evidence of this. At the same time there has been little adoption of many of the "improved" sorghums, millets, pigeon peas or beans released from research stations. Staff have blamed this on farmers' conservatism but experience belies such a claim. Farmers who need a daylight sensitive sorghum (as millions do in the West African savannah) for their mixed crop are not going to accept a daylight insensitive variety which has to be grown in pure stand. Farmers who have no reliable access to insecticidal sprays are not going to adopt a determinate pigeon pea which will not yield well unless it is sprayed. There is indeed an urgent need for intensive plant breeding for crops other than rice and maize but that need has to be linked to a better understanding of what farmers want. It is only in this way that it will achieve levels of acceptance comparable to that which farmers gave to the earlier adoptions. Hopefully the new technologies becoming available to breeders will help them to achieve these goals more quickly.

CONCLUSION

The 20th century provided clear evidence of the responsiveness and adaptability of smallholders in Africa. It demonstrated the value of crop and technology exchange across continents and the potential for expanding agricultural production under favourable political and economic conditions. It has also revealed how effective poor governance and economic policies can be at stifling development in the smallholder sector. The growth of population combined with new patterns of settlement have highlighted the need for urgent research ,extension and policy decisions relating to intensified land use. This, and the development of crop varieties which are well adapted to farmers' actual needs provide the main challenge to the scientific community. The donor community on the other hand has to face up to the deficiencies in the policies determining fertiliser use which have been highlighted by smallholder experience in the past. Above all we need to avoid the temptation of refusing to face up to the difficult lessons of the past as we seek to work with farmers to move into a more promising future.

REFERENCES

Carr, S. J. 1982. The impact of Government intervention on smallholder development in North and East Uganda. Wye College Occasional Papers No. 5.

Driberg, J. H. 1923. The Lango. Fisher and Unwin., London.

East African Royal Commission, 1955. Report 1953-55. London: H. M. Stationary Office Cmd. 9475.

Faulkener, O. T. and Mackie, J. R. 1933. West African Agriculture. Cambridge University Press.

Henao, J. and Baanante, C. 1999. Estimating Rates of Nutrient Depletion in Soils of Agricultural Lands of Africa. IFDC.

Hill, P. 1956. The Gold Coast Cocoa Farmer. Oxford University Press.

Johnson, W. H. 1926. Cotton and its Production. Macmillan.

Mellor, J. W., Delgado, C. L. and Blackie, M. J. 1987. Accelerating Food Production in Sub Saharan Africa. John Hopkins Press.

Miracle, M.P. 1966. Maize in Tropical Africa. University of Wisconsin Press.

Thomas, M.F. and Whittington, G.W. 1969. Environment and Land Use in Africa. Methuen.

Tothill, J.D. 1940. Agriculture in Uganda. Oxford University Press.

TABLE 1. Trends in crop exports and food imports for Sub-Saharan Africa

Relative % change 1960 to 1980

African region

Exports
Food imports

West

-57

+203

Central

-78

+124

East & South

-36

+ 82

Source: Mellor et al. (1987)

TABLE 2. A comparison of fertiliser use in Sub-Saharan Africa and selected Asian countries between 1978/79 and the annual average for 1994-98 (kg. of fertiliser per ha. of arable land per year)

Region

kg. per ha.1978/79

kg. per ha. 1994-98

Sub-Saharan Africa

16.0

13.2

India

34.2

82.6

Indonesia

64.5

143.9

China

149.3

353.9

World Bank. World Development Indicators 1999

TABLE 3. Percentage annual changes in the production and area of selected crops in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1961to 1980

Crop

% change in production
% change in area

Millets and sorghum

0.7

0.9

Roots and tubers

2.3

2.4

Pulses

2.7

2.6

Maize

2.7

1.7

Rice

3.6

2.8

Source: Mellor et al. (1987)
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