Integrating Smallholders in Rural Markets in Mozambique: empowering women or further marginalising them?

Based on a multidisciplinary empirical research conducted in Mozambique between September and December 2011, this paper aims at exploring the gendered constraints and consequences of policies aimed at market integration of small-scale farmers and the gender scenario is resulting from the current focus on strengthening smallholder access to rural markets through the creation of public-private partnerships (PPPs). Through an analysis of the literature on the demand and supply-side constraints of rural markets, and through the case studies, the articles argues that, far from “transforming farmers into entrepreneurs”, PPPs seem to provide an extra revenue that integrates the household’s one in crisis and food shortages, without nevertheless making a difference in substantially stabilizing incomes and in making more secure the overall livelihood strategy. The lack of a specific gender strategy to promote women’s participation in PPPs can result in disempowering outcomes given the context in which these changes are taking places. Introduction and contextualization: bringing the poor into the market in Mozambique Over the last decade, the analysis of the link between private agribusiness and African small-farmers has been a widely debated issue in the academic and technical literature on agricultural and rural development (Lahiff 2007; Amanor 2009; Oya 2012). The 2008 World Bank Report on Agriculture (WB 2007) highlights the relevance that business models based on agreements between private investors and small-farmers (either organized in associations or at community level), mediated by local government institutions can play in contributing to the integration of small-farmers in the agribusiness value chains and in the rural markets. Indeed, the so-called public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the creation of producers’ associations are two of the key recommendations of the WB to this aim: “The private sector drives the organization of value chains that bring the market to smallholders and commercial farms. The state through enhanced capacity and new forms of governance corrects market failures, regulates competition, and engages strategically in PPPs to promote competitiveness in the agribusiness sector and support the greater inclusion of smallholders and rural workers. In this emerging vision, agriculture assumes a prominent role in the development agenda” (WB 2007: 8). This discourse has gained prominence also in the debate over food security. On the basis of the negative impact that small import-dependent countries, especially in Africa, have suffered from the food and economic crisis, analysts argue that high and volatile food prices are likely to continue, as a consequence of several factors including the increasing demand from rapidly growing economies, the scarcity of natural resources in some regions, declining rates of yield growth for some commodities as well as the impact of climate change and increasing non-food crops production (FAO et al 2011: 11). These elements affect the vulnerability to poverty and food insecurity for smallholder farmers and, more in general, the rural poor: with low prices for producers, or high prices for consumers (in rural contexts where often the buyers and the sellers are the same), the predicted consequence is an increased unsustainability of the rural traditional productive patterns caused by, among other factors, decreasing investments in productivity and the related risk of losing control of the productive assets – including land. Related to this, the issue of losing land and its relation to food security is a very crucial one, and has to be understood in the broader context of the ongoing trend towards large-scale land transactions that are shaping the rural scenario in Africa (Cotula and Vermeulen 2009; Ochieng Odhiambo 2011; Hall 2011). According to some development actors, high food prices present incentives for increased long-term investment in the agriculture sector, which can contribute to improved food security in the longer term (FAO et al. 2011). The envisaged strategies and policy proposals include government policies that promote participation by the private sector in partnership with the local communities and small-holder farmers. Such business models are thought to improve the competitiveness of domestic production, increase farmers’ profits and make food more affordable for the poor. On the other side, many scholars and activists are concerned that the prevailing model of large-scale land acquisitions is jeopardizing the land and resource rights, livelihoods and food security of rural communities and the rural poor increasing for them the risk to be dispossessed. These actors, analyzing the “failure of land governance systems to recognize and protect the land interests of the rural poor and the political marginalization of smallholder production, which are themselves in part a legacy of histories of colonialism and political exclusion” (Anseeuw et al. 2012: 10), stress the need to legally recognize the land rights of the rural poor; to put smallholder production at the center of strategies for agricultural development and to make decision-making over land inclusive, transparent and accountable. Notwithstanding the two contrasting approaches, forms of partnerships between private investors and communities are considered a viable and sustainable policy option by both, in that they “may provide mutually beneficial solutions where communities have the necessary secure resource rights, organization, and negotiating capacity” (ivi: 7). Within this debate, the impact of current policies and initiatives aimed at the integration of women smallholder farmers into rural markets through PPPs that generally take the form of contract-farming arrangements is an issue that seems to have reached a deadlock. Analysts from the different sides of the political spectrum tend to agree on the distinctive negative consequences that women suffer from the mounting commercial pressure over land (Tandon 2010; Daley 2011; FAO 2011; Anseeuw et al. 2012), and argue that women have historically been excluded from contract-farming arrangements due to limited direct access to land and control over productive resources (Schneider and Gugerty 2010; FAO 2011). Based on these premises, generally the recommendation follows that the private sector contributes to the development of markets accessible to women, investing in rural-based enterprises and value chains that can integrate women (Hill 2011: 38) and that governments “create a good investment climate through strengthening property rights” as well as customary land rights (FAO 2011: 46-47; see also Anseeuw et al. 2012: 62). This would not only contribute to closing the gender gap in agriculture and rural employment, but also will positively impact on the economic empowerment of women. However, the soundness of the “integrating smallholders into the market” approach is barely put into question on the contrary, is often portrayed as the solution against African governments failures and a “tradition” that discriminates against women thus reproducing the idea that rural poverty is to be resolved by extending the “commodified space” and “bringing the poor into the market” (O’Laughlin 2009: 154, 156). Starting from this broader framework and based on a multidisciplinary empirical research conducted in Mozambique between September and December 2011, this paper aims at exploring the gendered constraints and consequences of policies aimed at market integration of small-scale farmers and namely the gender scenario that is resulting from the current focus on strengthening smallholder access to rural markets through the creation of PPPs. Our starting point is the analysis of the current Mozambican agricultural development strategy aimed at poverty reduction and food security vis-à-vis the international discourse and policies briefly outlined above. The Strategic Plan for the Development of the Agricultural Sector 2011-2020 (Plano Éstrategico para o Desenvolvimento do Sector Agrário, PEDSA), approved in May 2011, is based on three guiding principles: the development of value chains, according to an agro-industry model, the need to promote a different approach for each crops and PPPs (RoM 2011: 32). The PEDSA provides a concise but accurate analysis regarding the obstacles that Mozambican women face within the agricultural sector: "Women face enormous obstacles in the realization of their work due to the existing gender relations in rural communities. Women have limited control and access to resources and services, specifically to land, inputs, credit, production of cash crops, animal farming, extension services, information, training, technology and work. Moreover, their participation in decision-making related to productive and economic aspects is low because of the role that they play at the social and traditional level” (ivi: 30). The Strategic Plan makes reference to the Gender Strategy of the Agricultural Sector, approved in September 2005, which has the strategic objective of “establishing partnerships between the public and private sectors to increase investment in support to small farmers and women in particular, sharing the costs and risks of assistance in adopting new technologies and new cash crops through programs aimed at food security and poverty reduction" (RoM 2005: 20). The same focus on the relevance of public/private investments “to boost production and productivity in agriculture and fisheries” and to facilitate market access can be found in the third and latest Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) 2011-2014 (RoM 2011a: 15-18); whereas the second Mozambican PRSP was even more specifically oriented towards assisting both “small family farms during their gradual transition to commercial operation” and “commercial farmers, encouraging them to boost their production, productivity, and competitiveness” (RoM 2006: 129). The development