The importance of Networking and Collaboration amongst Farmers In Zambia and Sub-Saharan Africa

Collaboration and networking are essential for farmers across all categories in Africa. The main categories that determine the level and type of collaboration are almost entirely based on productivity levels/ scales. These being – Small scale, Emerging (mid-level), and Commercial farmers. This applies to different farming activities ranging from field crops (arable) to horticultural and animal farming.

Farmers’ unions and cooperatives play a key role in trying to achieve this united approach in dealing with various challenges farmers face. Based on the category of a farmer, their primary needs tend to vary. For example, a small-scale farmer would not be too concerned with the supply of high-voltage electricity as far as it affects his rainfed crop. In contrast, a commercial farmer who grows winter wheat would consider this a vital requirement for wheat farming. Further, a small-scale farmer would be less knowledgeable on price forecasts going ahead before the onset of the planting season. In contrast, even before growing his crop, a commercial farmer would have usually entered into forward contracts with would-be buyers such as grain processing firms. The same areas of congruence apply with the activity of the farmer; a small-scale livestock farmer would not be as knowledgeable on spotting the difference in the symptoms of Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia (CBPP) to say, Bacterial or Viral Pneumonia compared to a large-scale cattle rancher.

Driving Africa’s agriculture sector are small-scale farmers who, according to various sources such as Mckinsey, are 60% of the total continent’s population; according to IFAD, the figure is at 70 percent. This is a vitally important economic demographic that will be zeroed in on for the sake of this short discussion. 

So what is the level of collaboration amongst small-scale farmers? 

Is this collaboration and networking able to meet the requirements for them to be more productive and to overcome the very many challenges they face? 

Until very recently, apart from what are often governmental and NGO programs that aim to share information on best farming practices and other hot and essential topics for the farmers in the form of extension training, there was very little collaboration amongst small-scale farmers outside the rural areas where most work and live.

The growing use of the internet and Social Media Apps has had a significant influence in making information specific to the needs of small-scale farmers available and also allowing them to share their challenges and find solutions amongst themselves. However, internet use does come with many challenges and shortcomings. 

Take Facebook and WhatsApp, for example; there are numerous Facebook farmers groups (most meant for small-scale farmers) from different African countries, with many having membership figures as close to or even as high as a million. These groups share information on various subjects such as best crop practices, prevailing crop market prices, input costs, where to buy and sell at competitive prices, and where and how to process farm produce, plus they also share insights on the many challenges farmers face. However, some of the shortcomings of these Facebook groups are the spread of misinformation, a proliferation of other users intent on scamming naive users, fake(bot) users advertising merchandise, etc., and a lack of accessibility to make use of these tools for those not financially well off enough to purchase a smartphone and for those that can’t read or lack adequate internet network coverage. So, in essence, the use of ICT tools becomes a reserve for those that have attained a certain level of education, are at the very least literate or able to read, can afford a smartphone (even a secondhand one), plus don’t live in the very deep rural areas of the farming hinterland but live in the peri-rural areas along the line of rail and within mobile phone network coverage. These are, therefore, still a minority amongst the millions of small-scale farmers in Africa, most of whom cannot read, write, afford, and use a smartphone with its many Social Media Apps.

Despite the abovementioned challenges, networking and collaboration still occur among small-scale farmers. Those who can access and use Social Media Apps often pass on the information by word of mouth to others; radio also remains a very important medium of communication for most rural households. Lastly, verbal announcements by village Headmen, cooperative agricultural leaders, and govt agricultural extension officers all play an important role in disseminating information. 

How collaborating among farmers can make farming economically sustainable – A real-life example.

Practically speaking, a case of farmers seeking to add value to their soya beans crop in Zambia can be given as an example of how collaborating and networking are key in making farming economically sustainable. The majority of small-scale Zambian farmers grew soya beans in the 2022/23 farming season with the high hopes that the crop at harvest would fetch a competitive domestic price going by the previous marketing season price, which at $550 per ton was considered by many to be attractive and motivated them to grow soya beans in preference to other crops such as maize. However, this year’s price, due to high supply, was less than $300 per ton, a disappointment to many small-scale farmers. As a result of this, many farmers, through networking, began to look for facilities to process their soya beans into edible cooking oil and soya cake for animal feed. Several workshops have been announced as the interest and demand of small-scale farmers to add value to their produce grows. The first announcements concerning the setting up of these soya beans processing workshops began on Social Media Apps, from where those that expressed interest were asked to submit their phone numbers and then invited to a WhatsApp group that then gave further details on the time, date and venue of the soya beans edible oil processing workshops. This information would then be passed on by word of mouth or through announcements in print and electronic media (radio mainly) to those who, for whatever reason, cannot access Social Media Apps on smartphones or PCs. As a result, more and more small-scale farmers are being made aware of these facilities resulting in fewer farmers rushing to sell off their produce below the break-even price. This leads to more processed soya products and, ultimately, higher prices for the farmers’ soya beans, making farming the crop more economically sustainable.

References

1. https://www.ifad.org/thefieldreport/
2. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights/winning-in-africas-agricultural-market