Which agricultural choices to meet transformation challenges in africa debating small-scale versus large-scale

Abstract

The recent food price crisis has been used by public and private investors to justify land grabbing in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, it has reopened the debate on agricultural development models and drawn attention to the differences between small-scale and largescale farming. After reviewing the public debate around these issues-one that has featured many sensationalist announcements about land grabbing, but very little concrete evidence about the scope and magnitude of thisphenomenon-thispaper offers newinsights into the debate about the advantages and disadvantages of different agricultural development models. Family farms are the dominant type of agriculture worldwide, and their diversity expresses a « continuum » of stages that reflects the shape of agrarian systems and markets. The resilience of family farms can be explained by their many advantageswhen compared to large-scale corporate farms, and agricultural history has shown their outstanding capacity for innovation, largely determined by economic and institutional conditions. In Africa, where most family farmers are poor, the lack of technical and financial assets, exacerbated by adverse environmental conditions, is the source of strong constraints that inhibit productivity growth in the small-scale farming sector. In such a context, large-scale corporate agriculture might appear to be an attractive alternative, but abandonment of family farms is not a feasible option. Continuing support of family farms, at least for the foreseeable future, is dictated by the structure of African economies, most of which are characterized by a lack of economic diversification and the considerable weight of agriculture in the labor force.