Small Scale VS Large Scale Commercial Agriculture

Agriculture can form a central part of the economy for many African nations. An example is Sierra Leone and how 58% of its GDP is dominated by agriculture. Agriculture across Africa also varies in scale, power and size ranging from small scale subsistence farms to large scale commercial plantations. Currently, approximately 33 million small scale farms exist across Africa, contributing to 70% of Africa’s food supply. However, the presence and existence of medium or large scale farms between 5 to 100 hectares are also increasing, but they do not exist in the magnitude that small scale farms exist. Often, these large scale farms are criticised for not contributing to food security within Africa, but instead leaving disastrous environmental and social impacts in their wake.

Small scale farms have often been seen as the drivers of growth across Africa, providing food for local communities but also employing and managing a large labour force; 175 million people are directly employed by smallholder farms in Sub-Saharan Africa. They are seen to be very valuable where farmers possess knowledges of local environments and climates, which inform their decisions on crop growth and maintenance, but can also be used to create ‘climate-smart agricultural innovations’ to support local communities and build climate resilience (Makate, 2020: 277).

Figure 1 - Small scale farmers tending to a field in Nigeria. 

Moreover, small holder farms also use water less intensively in comparison to their large scale counterparts, as farms are typically smaller than a hectare and often rely on precipitation to grow crops. Small holder farms also create local irrigation technologies and initiatives, such as furrow irrigation or using shallow groundwater in valley bottoms to maintain their agricultural production (Woodhouse et al., 2016). For some, they remain Africa’s main asset, whilst others contest them and recommend the upscaling and commercialisation of agriculture.

Figure 2 - Bananalandia large scale plantation on the left and smaller scale farms on the right.

To achieve development goals and further increase economic growth, some believe that there is a need to shift focus and resources away from smallholder farms and re-direct these efforts to create opportunities for ‘megafarms’ to increase productivity (Collier and Dercon, 2014: 99). Whilst these large scale farms may possess scientific knowledge or receive greater funding than smallholder farms, empirical evidence shows that they can actually have dire consequences on local environments and small scale farmers. In order to make space for these large farms, deforestation is a process that usually occurs which reduces tree cover directly. 9.4% of trees were lost in Mozambique between 2000 and 2015 as a result of large scale farms (Zaehringer et al., 2021). Large scale farms have also been accused of ‘water grabbing’ or trying to secure control of local water resources such as rivers, lakes or aquifers and reduce flow and access to local communities and small scale farmers (Breu et al., 2016). Whilst these large scale farms may be useful for improving global food security, they pose risks for local food security by outcompeting other farmers. Thus exists the high controversies of adopting commercialised large-scale farms in Africa.

Following Schumacher’s (1973) message of ‘small is beautiful’, perhaps small scale farms are Africa’s best solutions to maintain food security and local environments. Large scale farms and the commercialisation of agriculture is something that will be observed more in the future, but to reduce their consequences and make them tools for positive change, owners should work with local people and their knowledges to understand the geology and geographies of environments and support local food security.