Inequality for farmers within Africa

In the previous post, on the Sahel region, I kept reading and noticing the fact that there are significant levels of inequality between farmers. This blog post looks at the factors that are contributing to this inequality alongside some potential solutions. 

Agriculture naturally is a critical sector within the economy for many African countries, due to the fact it employs a considerable amount of the population as well as contributing to a high amount of GDP (The World Bank, 2022). Although this is the case, there is still a wide amount of inequality among farmers within Africa, with some farmers facing a more significant challenge than others hence hindering their ability to succeed. 

One of the main factors that contributes to inequality among farmers in Africa is the varying access to land (Moyo, 2015). In many countries, there are a small number of 'elites' who ultimately earn a disproportionate amount go land, while the majority of farmers involved have limited access to land. This consequently means that it is much more difficult for small farmers to grow enough crops to sustain their own families let alone generate any form of profit (Gneiting, 2018). There is the concept of land tenure reform, this is where land ownership can be clarified as well as securing land rights to small farmers, which can help to address the issue and promote more of an equitable distribution of land. 

Video - Explaining Land Tenure Reform 

Another important factor that can contribute to inequality among farmers in Africa is the access to credit (Langyintuo, 2020). There are many small farmers who do not have the credit history to secure loans in any manner from financial institutions. This means that their ability to invest in essentials like fertilisers and seeds are limited massively. These essentials can be used to improve crop yields and hence their income. There have been methods introduced to help bridge the gap between different levels of farmers, like Microfinance institutions and other financial initiatives (Banerjee and Jackson, 2016). Microfinance institutions are organisations that specialise in offering financial services to those populations of a low income, and they predominantly all give loans to their members whilst many also can offer insurance, deposit methods and other useful services (UK AID, 2020). 

The access to markets is also very prevalent in contributing to inequality among farmers in Africa (Tavenner et al., 2019). The smaller and poorer farmers often lack the necessary infrastructure and the connections needed to sell their crops at prices that are deemed as fair. This results in no profit being made as there is a severe reliance on intermediaries who take a significant cut of sales prices (Woodhill, Hasnain and Griffith, 2018). If there was to be an improvement in terms of infrastructure and promoting a more direct market linkage between small farmers and buyers can result in these issues being addresses and hence there is more likely to be improved economic opportunities that are available for small farmers. 

In conclusion, it is evident that there are many factors that are helping to contribute to the inequality for farmers in Africa. These are all to do with varying levels of access to different things, like land, credit, and markets. The solutions or partial solutions of land tenure reform, financial inclusion initiates and general development of infrastructure can lead to more equality for all involved.