scholarly journals Small-scale Growers’ Struggle against Marginalization in the Cotton Value Chain

Author(s):  
Somo M. L. Seimu

This article analyses the marginalization of the native small-scale cotton growers during British colonial rule in the Western Cotton Growing Area (WCGA), Tanzania, and their struggle against it. Marginalization was practiced mainly by Indian cotton traders for three decades to maximize profit at the expense of natives who farmed the crop. The Indian traders who were licensed by the colonial authority to buy and export marginalized the growers through underpaying and cheating on them. From the 1930s local chiefs and their subjects (growers) began to protest against this situation, but were ignored by the colonial authority. At the end of the 1940s, growers formed groups which took initiatives that led to minimized marginalization with limited support from some colonial officials. Minimized marginalization did not imply control of the cotton value chain. With the support of native traders, local growers fought on until co-operatives were formed, which allowed them to gain the upper hand over the Indian merchants in the cotton value chain.

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serkan Karas ◽  
Stathis Arapostathis

By the late 1800s British colonial rule in Cyprus was experiencing both a socio-economic and a legitimacy crisis. Britain’s development projects were intended to quell the crisis and consolidate colonial authority. Famagusta Harbour construction was an integral part of that programme, but it antagonised wealthy and influential Cypriots in Larnaca. They believed that such infrastructure would undermine the importance of Larnaca harbour and threaten their commercial and political interests. Their protests threatened the colonial administration with a new crisis that was averted by the integration of Larnaca’s Harbour into British plans. The colonial regime had to negotiate and co-operate with local networks of power in order to realise its development programme: harbour development was no mere rational engineering exercise.


2001 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Webster

“In Malaya,” theDaily Mailnoted in 1953, “three and a half years of danger have given the planters time to convert their previously pleasant homes into miniature fortresses, with sandbag parapets, wire entanglements, and searchlights.” The image of the home as fortress and a juxtaposition of the domestic with menace and terror were central to British media representations of colonial wars in Malaya and Kenya in the 1950s. The repertoire of imagery deployed in theDaily Mailfor the “miniature fortress” in Malaya was extended to Kenya, where the newspaper noted wire over domestic windows, guns beside wine glasses, the charming hostess in her black silk dress with “an automatic pistol hanging at her hip.” Such images of English domesticity threatened by an alien other were also central to immigration discourse in the 1950s and 1960s. In the context of the decline of British colonial rule after 1945, representations of the empire and its legacy—resistance to colonial rule in empire and “immigrants” in the metropolis—increasingly converged on a common theme: the violation of domestic sanctuaries.Colonial wars of the late 1940s and 1950s have received little attention in literatures on national identity in early postwar Britain, but the articulation of racial difference through immigration discourse, and its significance in redefining the postimperial British national community has been widely recognized. As Chris Waters has suggested in his work on discourses of race and nation between 1947 and 1963, these years saw questions of race become central to questions of national belonging.


2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
WAI-YIP HO

AbstractThe madrasa, the Islamic institution of learning, has for centuries occupied a central role in the transmission of religious knowledge and the shaping of the identity of the global Muslim community (umma). This paper explores the sharp rise in the number of madrasas in contemporary Hong Kong. It examines, in particular, how South Asian Muslim youth, after receiving a modern education in a conventional day school, remain faithful to their religious tradition by spending their evenings at a madrasa studying and memorizing the Qur'an. Engaging with the stereotypical bias of Islamophobia and national security concerns regarding the ties of madrasas to Islamic terrorist movements over the last decade, this paper argues that the burgeoning South Asian madrasa networks have to be understood in the context of Hong Kong's tripartite Islamic traditions—South Asian Muslim, Chinese Hui Muslims, and Indonesian Muslims—and within each Muslim community's unique expression of Islamic piety. Furthermore, the paper also identifies factors contributing to the increase in madrasas in Hong Kong after the transition from British colonial rule to China's resumption of sovereign power in 1997.


Author(s):  
Priscilla Munzhelele ◽  
James W. Oguttu ◽  
Folorunso O. Fasina

The majority of small-holder pig farmers in Mpumalanga had between 1- and 10-sow herds. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the current government agricultural intervention (supply of 10 sows and a boar) in terms of technical and economic feasibilities and ascertain whether the small-scale pig value chain system alleviates poverty. Data were obtained from 220 randomly selected small-holder pig farmers using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results showed that 58% farrowed ≤ 10 piglets/born/sow/litter, 44.2% practiced no weaning method and many fed swill and leftovers alone (41.6%). Pair-wise association revealed that the feeding of commercial feeds had a relationship with pigs in relatively good to very good body condition. Pigs in poor body condition were positively correlated with the feeding of swill alone. The economic models for the 10-sow unit proved that pig farming is unprofitable if the current management and feeding systems that operate in the commercial industry are utilised. However, only through a combination of cooperative systems, benefits of economies of scale, reduction of preweaning mortalities and structured government inputs can pig production be profitable at this scale of production.Keywords: piglets; market; profit; economics; feeds


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-518
Author(s):  
Tinsae Demise Handino ◽  
Marijke D’Haese ◽  
Freaw Demise ◽  
Misginaw Tamirat

The repercussions of reforming an agricultural market are mainly observed at the most vulnerable segment of the value chain, namely, the producers. In the current commodity market created with trade through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), coffee is less traceable to its producers. Only cooperatives that sell certified coffee through the unions they belong to, are allowed to bypass the more commodified ECX market. This study aims to investigate if small-scale coffee producers in southwestern Ethiopia that sell coffee through the certified cooperative are better off. It is assumed that the coffee sales through, and membership of, a cooperative, allows farmers to improve their coffee production as well as to improve other aspects of their livelihood. A sustainable livelihood approach was used as the inspiration for the welfare indicators that needed to be considered, data collected amongst members and non-members of certified cooperatives, and a propensity score model to investigate the impact of cooperative membership on the livelihood indicators. Results suggest that members of certified cooperatives indeed receive, on average, better prices. Yet, no evidence was found that indicates that the higher price is translated into better household income. Furthermore, coffee plantation productivity of those members who were interviewed was lower than that of the non-members. This finding could explain the failure to find an overall effect. Since the majority of the producers’ income emanate from coffee, a sustainable way of enhancing the productivity of the coffee could revitalize the welfare of the coffee producers.


Author(s):  
Kristin Davis ◽  
David J. Spielman

Agricultural extension and advisory services are critical to supporting technological and institutional changes that can improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers in developing countries. However, many extension services are under-resourced, out of date, and need of structural and content changes. However, efforts to systematically strengthen local extension systems often fall into the trap of promoting blueprints that are insufficiently adapted to local context. To that end, researchers developed the best-fit framework in the 2000s to provide impetus for pursuit of more locally-tailored extension solutions. Today, almost a decade later, researchers test the framework under real-world conditions in a cross-country application. This paper examines the application of this framework across six dimensions and seven countries to formulate a set of best-fit recommendations that are also broadly appreciable. The findings show that it is possible to apply the framework to the analysis of EAS across countries while also maintaining a very localized perspective on recommendations. Across the seven countries, certain obvious commonalities exist: The growth in pluralism in extension providers, the persistence of weak incentives for extension agents, and the lack of enabling policies. At the same time, innovative solutions to many of the challenges held in common—ICT-enabled extension, performance incentives, and value-chain oriented extension—are heterogeneous. The framework allows users to pursue change processes in EAS in response to their own local realities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Rahman ◽  
FA Happy ◽  
AH Efan ◽  
MHR Hera

This study examined the prevailing dairy value chain based on primary data collected from 70 small-scale milk producers of Mymensingh district of Bangladesh. The total cost and net return per month per cow were Tk. 4024.30 and Tk. 3165.70, respectively. The net value additions of Tk. 2091.42, Tk. 495.00, Tk. 655.00, Tk. 503.25, Tk. 309.70 were estimated for milk producers, collectors, Faria, Bepari and retailers respectively. Different actors spent highest marketing cost ranged from Tk.49 to Tk.80 for transportation compared to other marketing functions. Actors mostly dependent on the on-going market prices for setting price of milk in the value chain. A value chain map was developed showing the relationships and linkages among value chain actors of small-scale dairy. The study identified some critical factors for successful dairy marketing. The factors were understanding consumer behaviour, technology and transportation, improved business relationships, reduced transaction costs, and improved information flow, and organized market structure. Milk producer’s share in consumers’ price was highest for channel- I followed by channel- V. Expensive, inadequate, low quality feed, lack of grazing land, green grass, inadequate capital, knowledge about cost of production, weak extension services, high fees and unavailability of veterinary doctors, were some of the major problems of milk producers. Supply of adequate feed at subsidized price, ensuring easy access to institutional credit at a lower interest rate, adequate medicine and veterinary services, allocation of khas land for producing fodder/grass, were suggested to solve the problems. SAARC J. Agri., 17(2): 213-226 (2019)


2019 ◽  
pp. 12-25
Author(s):  
Katherine Isobel Baxter

Chapter One provides an account of the history of colonial and postcolonial Nigeria, focusing particularly on politics and law. The chapter recounts the long history of British colonial presence in West Africa and explains the introduction of indirect rule as a system of colonial government from the turn of the century. Some of the impacts of indirect rule are considered through reference to Obafemi Awolowo’s memoir, Awo, and Chinua Achebe’s novel, Arrow of God. The chapter also sketches out the divisions that indirect rule fomented and the resistance to which it gave rise. Finally, the chapter explains the implications of indirect rule for the implementation of law in Nigeria both during colonial rule and following independence.


Author(s):  
David T. Buckley

How did Ireland arrive at the twin tolerations after independence from British colonial rule? This chapter the existence of benevolent secularism in the Irish Constitution of 1937, and traces its impact on Ireland’s Catholic majority, religious minorities, and secular elites. Evidence draws on communication between political and religious elites during the drafting of the 1937 Constitution, with special attention to communication between Éamon de Valera and Catholic, Protestant and Jewish elites. The chapter closes with an examination of weaknesses in Irish benevolent secularism manifested in the “Mother and Child” controversy.


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