Political Domination and Economic Dispossession of Farmers: The Case of Land Acquisition for Special Economic Zones in India

Involuntary acquisition of agricultural land for setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in India benefited the elite at the expense of small farmers who were and are the dominant voting group. Consequently, such policies were met with fierce political resistance by farmer organizations across the country. However, these movements have a mixed record against land acquisition attempts by the state and large corporations. This paper presents a simple model of the political conflict between the elite and small farmers over land acquisition to show how the elite may mobilize resources to ensure that their economic interests are protected even in democracies where they are in electoral minorities. We test the predictions of our model using a new data set compiled on SEZ projects that failed to acquire land because of farmer agitations. We show that factors like inequality in land ownership (class) and hierarchies of caste hinder the ability of small and marginal farmers to successfully organize collective action against land acquisition. Further, the division of votes along caste and ethnic lines also dilutes the potential for successful farmer agitations against land acquisition. Finally, we find that historically marginalized communities also resist land acquisition even when they face greater caste-based discrimination in the traditional village economy.

Participation in farmer organizations and adoption of farming technologies among rice farmers in Ghana

PurposeThe authors examine the factors influencing membership in farmer organizations (FO) and their effects on the decision to adopt farm technologies by rice farmers in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a farm survey of 900 households from Northern Ghana and a recursive bivariate probit (RBP) model that accounts for selection bias and endogeneity.FindingsThe results indicate that the household head’s decision to adopt machinery and row planting increases by 38.4 and 25.3%, respectively, upon joining a farmer organization. Membership in farmer organization is positively influenced by off-farm income, asset value, farmer organization location and farmer location in Upper West region but negatively by males, age and total livestock units owned. Machinery adoption is positively influenced by membership in farmer organizations and respondent being male but negatively influenced by the years of schooling, farm size, farm distance and location of a farmer in Ghana's Upper East and West regions. Similarly, row planting adoption is positively influenced by membership in farmers' organization but adversely by farm size, farm distance and a farmer's location in Upper East region of Ghana.Research limitations/implicationsIt can be concluded that membership in farmers' organizations significantly impacts farm household head’s decision to adopt machinery and row planting in rice production, which potentially enhance crop productivity.Practical implicationsThese results show the importance of agricultural stakeholders in encouraging the formation and strengthening of farmer organizations to support the adoption of modern farming technologies.Originality/valueDeveloping literature has demonstrated that farmer organizations promote the adoption of agricultural innovations. However, most of these studies have concentrated on conventional agricultural innovations and have used methods that fail to account for potential selection bias. This paper fills this important gap.

Pitfalls of External Institutional Facilitation of Farmer Organizations: Insights from Farmer Companies in Sri Lanka

Farmer companies (FCs) were a form of farmer-owned firms established in Sri Lanka during the mid-1990s. These have been facilitated by state institutions. Maximization of returns through commercial agriculture has been the main objective of FCs. However, no FCs were operating by the year 2010. This article explains that the institutional facilitation is a strong ingredient in the establishment of FCs in Sri Lanka. This article explainfs how the institutional and governance arrangements of FCs were influenced by the facilitating institutions during the institutional facilitation. It also suggests that institutional facilitation affected the performance of FCs. Six failed FCs were studied. Strategic facilitation was responsible for the performance and sustainability of FCs while operative facilitation provided the basis for direction and operations. Results indicate that poor performance and failure of FCs were due to institutional facilitation that has introduced weak institutional and governance arrangements. There was non-shareholder influence on the Boards of Directors; geographically restricted shareholding; democratic voting rights; and shareholder rights not linked to equity or patronage. Governance problems included voting by the raise of hand; managers not reporting to the Boards directly; shareholders did not elect all the directors. Institutional facilitation of FCs in Sri Lanka has been done by the state facilitating institutions. They have been excessively authoritative on their respective FCs. Therefore, changing the label from cooperatives to companies would not result in better performance. Some recommendations are that facilitating institutions empower FCs through capacity-building; participatory approach in facilitation; remove the geographical restriction in shareholding; install variable shareholding; build capacity of managerial staff; use secret ballots at voting, and practice proportional voting. Understanding the role of facilitating institutions and the dynamics of facilitation would be useful to promote farmer collectives in smallholder farmer dominant developing countries.

Households’ Decision to Participate in Cooperative Organizations: Evidence from Farmers in Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria

Farmer organizations are effective mechanisms for increasing agricultural production, darners income and reducing poverty. Regrettably, farmers have not taken advantage of the lofty benefits accruable to those who voluntarily join these organizations. The study estimated the factors influencing households decision to participate in cooperative organizations and also tested the level of agreement among identified constraints linked with participation. Multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 120 farmers for the study. Primary data were obtained using questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Probit model and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance. Results of analyses revealed that the mean age, years of educational attainment household size and years of farming experience were 32, 15, 5 and 7 respectively. Result of probit analysis further indicate that age of the farmer, farm income, household size, participation in meeting, major decision maker, distance of farm to the nearest road and farmers social status were the most critical factors influencing households decision to participate in cooperative organizations. Result of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance revealed that there was 0.42 (moderate agreement) between the ranking of constraints associated with farmers' participation in cooperative organizations. Furthermore, findings showed that the top five factors limiting households’ decision to participate in cooperative organizations were inadequate capital accumulation, high embezzlement of funds, poor leadership, recurring internal crises and lack of initiative. Policies to provide good and accessible roads, increase farmers incomes and encourage youths are rational options that will enhance effective participation in cooperative organizations.

Scheme to support coconut replanting program on smallholder plantation

Coconut plantations are dominated by smallholders characterized by limited land area, low productivity, and low added value. The low productivity is partly due to the old age of the plants. The performance of coconut plantations can be improved, among others, through replanting smallholder plantations, but the implementation is still low, mainly due to financing constraints. This study aims to develop a financing scheme to support coconut replanting programs in smallholder plantations. The analysis used is Interpretative Structural Modelling for strategy mapping. The strategy for accelerating the smallholder coconut replanting program is related to developing the seed system, capacity building of farmers and farmer organizations, and technology support. The implementation of coconut replanting consists of nursery establishment, seed distribution, and planting and cultivation management. The financing scheme is a replanting financing method that includes the provision of funds, the scope of the use of funds, and the mechanism for using funds. Various financing models were built, consisting of the Self-Financing Scheme, the Companion Fund Financing Scheme, and the Program-Based Financing Scheme. These various schemes accommodate variations in conditions in coconut development centers in Indonesia. Through the financing scheme, it is also possible to map the roles of each stakeholder involved.

Institutional Synergism as the Information Center for Agriculture Development (PIPP) in Indonesia

Institutional empowerment will push the improvement of farmer productivity which can affect the well-being of farmer life. The purpose of this article is to determine the role of institutions in the development of the Center for Agricultural Development Information in rural and the efforts that can be made to create synergy between institutions and PIPP. This paper uses a literature review by looking for relevant references according to existing problems. The data has been obtained are then analyzed using descriptive analysis methods. The results and discussion show that some of the institutions involved in the Agricultural Development Information Center (PIPP) are, universities, local governments, opinion leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), farmer organizations (extension agents, farmer contacts, farmer group associations, (Gapoktan) and farmer groups). Empowering farmers through common perceptions and alignment of goals, strengthening institutions for the continuity and sustainability of resources and structuring institutional capacity, improving institutional management, improving leadership patterns, and transparency.

Factors Affecting the Participation of Sugarcane and Tobacco Farmers in Farmer Groups, Associations and Cooperatives in Indonesia

<p>The revitalization of farmer organizations has become the central paradigm in agricultural development. In Indonesia, increasing farmer participation in farmer groups, associations and cooperatives is the strategy to revitalize farmer organizations. This study aimed to determine the factors influencing farmers' participation in farmer groups, associations and cooperatives. This study employed data from the Sugarcane and Tobacco Plantation Farm Household Survey in 2014, consisting of 8,831 (70.73%) sugarcane farmers and 3,645 (29.27%) tobacco farmers. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors contributing to farmers' participation in each organization. The results showed that harvest area, access to extension and contract farming positively affect farmers’ participation in organizations. Farmers' age and education positively affect their participation in associations and cooperatives but do not significantly affect their group participation. Land tenure has an ununiform effect on farmer participation in each organization. Tenant farmers are less likely to participate in farmer groups and cooperatives, but they tend to participate in associations. Meanwhile, the owner farmers are less likely to join cooperatives. Government support positively influences farmer group participation, shows a negative effect on participation in associations and has a non-significant effect on participation in cooperatives. Finally, farmers' wealth gives a positive effect on their participation in cooperatives, a negative effect on their participation in associations and a non-significant effect on farmer groups. These results depict that farmer groups are more inclusive than cooperatives and associations.</p>

Senegal Farmer Networks Respond to COVID-19

This study leveraged existing data infrastructure and relationships from the Feed the Future Senegal Naatal Mbay (“flourishing agriculture”) project, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by RTI International from 2015 to 2019. The research informed and empowered farmer organizations to track and respond to rural households in 2020 as they faced the COVID-19 pandemic. Farmer organizations, with support from RTI and local ICT firm STATINFO, administered a survey to a sample of 800 agricultural households that are members of four former Naatal Mbay–supported farmer organizations in two rounds in August and October 2020. Focus group discussions were conducted with network leadership pre- and post–data collection to contextualize the experience of the COVID-19 shock and to validate findings. The results showed that farmers were already reacting to the effects of low rainfall during the 2019 growing season and that COVID-19 compounded the shock through disrupted communications and interregional travel bans, creating food shortages and pressure to divert seed stocks for food. Food insecurity effects, measured through the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and cereals stocks, were found to be greater for households in the Casamance region than in the Kaolack and Kaffrine regions. The findings also indicate that farmer networks deployed a coordinated response comprising food aid and access to personal protective equipment, distribution of short-cycle legumes and grains (e.g., cowpea, maize) and vegetable seeds, protection measures for cereals seeds, and financial innovations with banks. However, food stocks were expected to recover as harvesting began in October 2020, and the networks were planning to accelerate seed multiplication, diversify crops beyond cereals, improve communication across the network. and mainstream access to financial instruments in the 2021 growing season. The research indicated that the previous USAID-funded project had likely contributed to the networks’ COVID-19 resilience capacities by building social capital and fostering the new use of tools and technologies over the years it operated.

Group Cohesion for Enhanced Operation of Agricultural Community-Based Projects in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Collective operation of smallholder farmers and cooperatives has been attributed to many mishaps and malfunctions. Such knowledge creates misperceptions regarding agricultural cooperatives and their usefulness in development. This study investigated member commitment, group cohesion and membership retention in agricultural production cooperatives. The main aim was to identify possible practical measures for enhanced performance and increased sustainability in farmer organizations. Data was collected from 92 participants that were currently operating as cooperative members. A combination of descriptive statistics, Perceived Cohesion (PC) and Binary Logistic Regression methods were employed for analysis. Results of the study indicate that group cohesion is influenced by trust among members, internal communication, financial performance of the cooperative, involvement of members in decision making, and role of the organization in the community. Strategies for increased group cohesion that were recommended in the study include information sharing and transparency at all levels of operation, and collective decision making and planning in organizations.