Farming as an entrepreneur: could it be a solution for smallholder farmers?
While browsing online for information on problems facing smallholder farmers, this statement caught my attention: With 2.2 million tones of cocoa in 2022, Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer, accounting for a third of the global total. But often, farmers make about 5% of the retail price of a chocolate bar, and earn $1.20 each day.
So, if you were to be asked what to be in the cocoa value chain, would you be a farmer or a chocolate processor or a retailer?
This is the dilemma facing smallholder farmers in rural Africa. Most of them spend a lot of time, energy and resources on their farms but have very little to show for it. They don’t even have the power to decide the prices of their produce which is left to powerful middle men in the supply chain. These players stand between the farmers and the market and they don’t just yield power but also earn substantially from the sale of the products.
Farmers therefore do so much of the work in the chain but earn the least. Unfortunately , most smallholder farmers, especially women, don’t view their work as an economic activity. Either because of the poor earnings or just the mindset created all along. For this reason, we see how young people aren’t taking up farming even as their parents are aging.
Agriculture is being taunted as one of the biggest earner in the coming times and also a solution to hunger and food insecurity . But will it be taken up by future generations or even taken seriously by those who practice it in their everyday life?
My experience, in the past year, working with women farmers has shown a trend that, most will abandon farming if they found another business to bring more revenue. Most of the women don’t have ideas for making farming their high income earner.
In our second phase of the project, we are focusing on business development and agriculture value chains management; with the hope that, the women will turn agriculture into business that can fight poverty as it sustains food security and the environment.
This is a brilliant strategy. I remember training young entrepreneurs in Rwanda in 2018 – and they too did not have any ideas as to how to add value to their produce. But once they learnt of the possibilities and concepts they could employ, it was much easier for them to develop their own viable businesses.