Advantages of plantation agriculture in West Africa
Answers
Answer:
Advantages of plantation agriculture in West Africa
Explanation:
Plantation agriculture can be defined as the cultivation of certain crops (usually Cash crops) on a large area of land. CROPS INVOLVED IN PLANTATION AGRICULTURE. It involves the planting of perennial crops such as Cocoa, Rubber, Oil palm, Tea, Coffee etc.
It creates more job opportunities to the local people. 2 It is a source of income for a country. 3 Crops are produced on large scale. 4 Large estates are managed scientifically and efficiently.
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Answer:
It creates more job opportunities to the local people. 2 It is a source of income for a country. 3 Crops are produced on large scale. 4 Large estates are managed scientifically and efficiently.
Executive summary
Introduction
There is uncertainty and no small controversy surrounding
the potential impacts of commercial agricultural
developments that are being proposed for sub-Saharan
Africa by domestic governments and foreign investors.
Much of the debate concerns how Africa’s rural poor
could be affected. One response is to look back and
review what the outcomes have been from earlier such
developments. This should include consideration of the
institutional setting to help us understand how
institutions influence the character and outcome of
commercial agricultural schemes. This working paper
assesses the historical experience of three farming
models that have figured in recent investments in
sub-Saharan Africa: plantations, contract farming and
commercial farming areas. Based on a literature review,
the paper concentrates on the involvement of, and effects
on, rural societies in and around the area where the
schemes were located. It looks mainly at sub-Saharan
Africa but also considers case studies from Latin America
and Asia.
Defining and theorising the
three farming models
Plantations grow one main cash crop; require capital
investment; are larger than an average-sized holding
although some land may be left uncultivated; rely on
hired resident or non-resident labour, often including
migrant labour; and are centrally managed. Ownership
may be foreign or domestic, private or corporate. With
contract farming, farmers agree in a written or verbal
contract to supply produce to a buyer, usually at a
pre-determined price, on a specific date and to a certain
quality. There are several variants. One that may involve
large-scale land acquisition is nucleus outgrowing, where
contracted smallholders complement production on a
central estate. Lastly, a commercial farming area
constitutes multiple private commercial farms of medium
or large scale that are more or less contiguous in an area.
Commercial farming areas or blocks have been
documented in Africa throughout the twentieth century,
and in recent years there have been signs of increased
activity and political rhetoric around such developments.
Academic analysis of the three models has been
dominated by approaches from mainstream neoclassical
economics and Marxist political economy. Early work
from dependency and labour theory considered the
socio-economic impact of plantations in developing
economies. In recent decades attention has shifted to
contract farming and smallholder agriculture. Since the
1990s, perspectives from New Institutional Economics
have been especially influential on the debate around
contract farming, typically reaching more optimistic
conclusions than earlier critical agrarian perspectives
about the benefits of this model. However, the potential
for agribusiness to exploit the monopsony control that
is inherent in contract farming presents a dilemma for
economists. Regarding commercial farming areas, some
of the most relevant theory addresses the emergence
of indigenous middle-class farmers, including the notions
of accumulation from below and farmers ‘straddling’
agriculture and salaried work.
Being aware of the trends and diversity in academic
thought helps us to understand why researchers direct
their data-gathering into particular areas, and why
analysts and policymakers support certain farming
models over others. Disputes over the relative advantages
of small-scale and large-scale agriculture continue to
inform positions. Currently there is much interest in
economic linkages and whether the globalised food
system presents new economies of scale in agriculture.
Opinion on commercial farming models also depends
on attitudes towards the peasantry, with positions
divided over whether off-farm employment or land
reform and continued peasant farming offer the better
future for the rural poor.
Historical overview
The shifting trends in academic thought mirror the
decline in foreign-owned plantations and rise in contract
farming that occurred in sub-Saharan Africa during the
second half of the twentieth century. This occurred partly
because large-scale foreign operations became too risky
after colonialism. It is only in the past decade or two that
foreign plantations have become politically and
economically viable once more.