Family Farms and Investment Capacities

• Published date: 01 September 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18278/wfp.1.2.3
• Date: 01 September 2014

48

World Food Policy - Volume 1, Number 2 - Fall 2014

Introduction

Aer decades of neglect of the agri-

cultural sector in many developing

countries, by both national govern-

ments and international public aid (Lip-

ton 1977; Krueger, Schi and Valdés 1991;

World Bank 2007), a broad consensus has

emerged on the need to invest in this sec-

tor. is is well illustrated by the World de-

velopment report 2008 of the World Bank.

While this report is ambiguous as to the

kind of players best placed to invest in agri-

culture, this issue has raised a debate, espe-

cially since large-scale corporate and public

investments have developed following the

agricultural prices spike on international

markets in 2007/08. Some consider these

investments mainly as a source of liveli-

hood opportunities for those living in rural

areas in poor countries, recognizing howev-

er that some risks do exist but judging that

they can be managed by appropriate gov-

ernment sponsored institutions (Deininger

and Byerlee 2011). Others, concerned by

the risk of marginalization of family farm-

ers, reect on collaborative business models

that may structure agricultural investments

so that they benet family farmers to some

extent (Cotula and Leonard 2010; Vermeu-

len and Cotula 2010). Others still consider

that most investments in smallholder ag-

riculture are made, and are to be made, by

smallholders themselves, mainly through

labor investments, while acknowledging

that many constraints burden these invest-

ments (Scoones et al. 2010; Lowder, Caris-

ma and Skoet 2012; HLPE 2013).

On the other hand, the history of

many parts of the world in recent decades

shows that, with the support of appropriate

policies, family farmers have been able to

is article aims to shed light on the conditions under which family farmers in de-

veloping countries could be able to invest and develop. is question is of particu-

lar interest in the Oce du Niger area in Mali because, since 2006, the Malian gov-

ernment has been seeking to attract new investors there, under the assumption that

they will be more able than family farmers to develop agriculture. On the other hand,

the main union of family farmers in this area promotes investment by family farm-

ers themselves. Based on the farming system concept, a thorough eld survey was

carried out, combining quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and

processing. e data analysis shows that access to properly irrigated land, and ac-

cess to short and medium-term credit to purchase inputs and equipment, are cur-

rently the main factors limiting farm productivity and investment capacities. e

study suggests that for agriculture to develop in Mali, the peasant way is fully credible.

Keywords: farming system, agricultural surplus, irrigation scheme, land grabbing,

Mali.

Acknowledgement: we wish to thank the anonymous reviewer for his/her very rele-

vant comments on an earlier dra of this paper. e remaining shortcomings are our

sole responsibility.

Family Farms and Investment Capacities

Laurence Roudart1 , Benoît Dave1

1 Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

49

Family Farms and Investment Capacities

invest, to increase their production, produc-

tivity, and competitiveness. It has been true

in Asian countries that pursued green revo-

lution policies from the mid-1960s onward

(Hazell and Ramasamy 1991; Mellor 1998;

Trébuil and Hossain 2004; Grion 2006;

De Janvry and Byerlee 2009). Elsewhere

in North America and in Western Europe,

from the 1930s and 1950s respectively, it is

family farmers who, beyond the public in-

vestments and the private investments in ag-

ricultural commodity chains upstream and

downstream of the production stage, have

made the productive investments needed

to complete the second major agricultural

revolution of the Modern Era, which has

resulted in an enormous accumulation of

xed and circulating capital in family farms,

and huge productivity gains (Mazoyer and

Roudart 2000, 2006; Weis 2007; McMichael

2009; Roudart and Mazoyer 2012).

e objective of this paper is to an-

alyze whether family farms in the Oce

du Niger zone in Mali are able to accumu-

late capital from agricultural activities. is

question is of particular interest because,

since 2006, the Malian government has been

seeking to attract new investors there, pub-

lic or private, national or foreign (Cotula

et al. 2009; Oakland Institute and CNOP

2011). It has done so for lack of money to

develop new irrigated land, but also under

the assumption that these new investors will

be more able than family farmers to develop

agriculture in this area (Adamczewski et al.

2013). About 500 potential investors might

have obtained a license, for a total of about

600,000 hectares (ha) in 2011 (Hertzog et

al. 2012), more than six times the area cur-

rently irrigated and cultivated in the zone.

However, the ow of the Niger River and the

capacity of the irrigation system will not al-

low to irrigate such an area, which suggests

conicts over access to water. In this context,

the main union of family farmers in the area,

namely the SEXAGON (Syndicat des ex-

ploitants agricoles de l’Oce du Niger), took

position on the land question. SEXAGON

(2009, 2010) claims that the lack of access

to irrigated land is one of the main factors

limiting the productivity and investment ca-

pacity of family farms in the area. erefore,

it demands greater and more secure access

to irrigated plots by family farmers.

us, in this article, we analyze the

economic feasibility of the strategy proposed

by the SEXAGON. We rst briey present

the main features of agriculture in this area,

before to expose our research approach, to

analyze the results and limitations of this re-

search, and then to conclude.

Main features of agriculture in the

Oce du Niger zone

Irrigated crops

The Oce du Niger zone is an irrigat-

ed area of about 86,000 ha located in

the Niger River Inner Delta. is is a

gravity irrigation scheme, originating in the

water that accumulates behind the dam of

Markala (Oce du Niger 2010).

is zone began to develop in 1932,

under the aegis of the French authorities.

Its development experienced many set-

backs, so that it was almost abandoned in

the late 1970s. Yet, at that time, stakehold-

ers—including farmers, the State, the Oce

du Niger and donors—decided to begin a

process of rehabilitation of water infrastruc-

tures, and a gradual introduction of tech-

nical cum institutional innovations. is

process stretched over a period of nearly 20

years, during which family farmers greatly

increased crop yields, raised the number of

harvests per year and diversied crops—in

dierent ways according to their ecolog-

ical, economic and social conditions—to

the point that many authors consider this