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Family Agriculture and the Sustainable Development Issue: Possible Approaches from the African Oil Palm Sector

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Family Agriculture and the Sustainable Development Issue: Possible Approaches from the African Oil Palm Sector LES ACTEURS Family agriculture and the sustainable development issue: possible approaches from the African oil palm sector. The example of Ivory Coast and Cameroon 1 Emmanuelle CHEYNS Abstract: Based on the results of studies conducted in Ivory Coast and Cameroon, the article proposes Sylvain RAFFLEGEAU2 an analysis of the family agriculture situation in the oil palm commodity chain, repositioning it within a context of sustainable development issues. At a time when production standards are back on the agenda 1 CIRAD, UR Normes et régulation des marchés, with so-called ″voluntary commitment″ processes, through ″private standards″ to enable sustainable Montpellier, France agriculture, the authors examines the outcome of the previous phases of family agriculture standardi- 2 CIRAD, UR Performance des systèmes de zation by Estates and State-owned companies between 1960 and 1990, followed by privatization of the culture de plantes pérennes / IRAD, La Dibamba, sector. The article shows that family agriculture possesses its own rationality which needs to be taken Cameroon into consideration, if the stakes, over and above guaranteeing ″sustainable oil″, are indeed those of the impact that the palm oil sector has on ″sustainable development″. Starting from that point, the question is no longer: how can family agriculture take on board technical standards designed for other production models, but how can family agriculture take part in the compromises negotiated in the commodity chain in such a way that its logics and operating methods are considered when drawing up production choices? An analysis of surveys on oil palm-based cropping and farming systems makes it possible a) to specify the logics underlying production practices and to show their specificity, b) and reiterate the minimum conditions required in order for this agriculture, which is the major agriculture in some countries, to achieve the socio-economic reproduction level of the household and not only of the plot: access to capital and information, minimum land areas and prices, representation on negotiating bodies. Key words: family agriculture, oil palm, sustainable development, Ivory Coast, Cameroon Oil palm development in Africa and Asia has on the production potential of countries in the ings in Ivory Coast (between 1963 and 1990) historically been promoted through the Gulf of Guinea. In all, around 350,000 ha were and 12,000 ha in Cameroon (between 1977 “estate” model, as for crops such as sugar cane, planted with selected planting material and 1991) with selected planting material [2, tea and natural rubber, etc. It is based on a between 1960 and 1980, of which 220,000 ha 3]. While this system enabled the adoption of a scheme that from the 1960s combined estates, were estates [1]. The model adopted arose new crop, by providing information and capi- central industrial oil mills and “outgrowers”1 from a compromise between rural develop- tal, particularly on family farms, it was also a (around the oil mill) in “nucleus estate” sys- ment requirements (road building, diversifica- source of tension between estate production tems. tion of rural agricultural incomes, etc.), and standards and family production logic, the out- In Africa, from the 1960s to the 1990s, that profitability and efficiency (increasing oil come of which can be summed up today and model was implemented and managed by yields), resulting in a “contract” whereby out- lessons can be learnt, insofar as the question of State-owned companies2 and organized growers were committed to respecting recom- standards is back on the agenda in debates on through development “Plans” for the crop. mended farm management standards that sustainable development. These programmes received backing from maximized yield, and to supplying all their At the end of the 1990s, liberalization policies international donors and had a decisive impact production to the oil mill. Public development spurred on by the international agencies led to companies guaranteed farmers their inputs the privatization of these State companies. The 1 and planting material (on a credit basis), tech- assets of State-run agroindustrial companies The term “outgrower” is used here to mean all nical support, FFB collection and track upkeep. “non-estate” plantations. It covers a diversity of pro- (estates and oil mills) were bought by private The production delivered to the oil mill served ducer types. enterprises. As in many other agricultural sec- 2 SONADER (1962) then SONICOG in Benin, SODE- to guarantee its supplies and enable credit tors, the abolition of State monopolies led to PALM (1963) then PALMINDUSTRIE in Ivory Coast, recovery. The creation of development funds the emergence of oligopolistic market struc- SONAPH (1968) in Togo, SOCAPALM (1968) in also made it possible to ensure a funding and tures. Privatization also generated a set of Cameroon, PALMEZA (1970) in ZAIRE, GOPDC credit system internal to the commodity chain. changes that rendered the system insecure: (1975) in Ghana, CENTRAPALM (1975) in the Cen- In Ivory Coast and Cameroon such funds led to emergence of new stakeholders, poor coordi- tral African Empire, etc., [1]. the creation of 77,000 ha of oil palm smallhold- nation, decentralization of decision-making OCL VOL. 12 N° 2 MARS-AVRIL 2005 111 centres and the disappearance of the credit- this agriculture organizes its production activ- b) Survey in Ivory Coast, in the Aboisso region. based seed and fertilizer funding system [4]. ity within a social framework and, conse- The survey involved 117 growers in 3 villages The drop in international market prices since quently, that its efficiency cannot be compared (Koffikro, Baffia, Assouba), in July 2002. The 1999, which impacted on the FFB purchase to the efficiency standards of a non-family sample was not representative of an overall price in Ivory Coast, added to this context of industry, for example, but we shall nonetheless population, as it was established according to a uncertainty. Changes in production methods provide a few reminders of some major differ- quota system in order to compare 3 types of and the development of oil palm smallholdings ences here. growers: (i) cocoa growers who had adopted increased in pace. The risk limitation option of However, this vision bears the risk of suggest- oil palm growing, (ii) cocoa growers who had diversification and taking advantage of local ing that family agriculture, whilst social, is not not adopted oil palm growing, (iii) former demand to sell FFB on the domestic market, technical. Yet results taken from different stud- cocoa farmers who had switched to oil palm which was barely affected by the uncertainties ies show that the technical component lies at growing. The survey covered an area of 1,963 of the international market and the constraints the heart of this farming system, which largely ha, all crops combined (including uncultivated of an oligopolistic market, fitted in with this contributes to world crude palm oil produc- areas) [8]. logic. The insecurity of the system strength- tion, and accounts for the totality of world c) Survey in Ivory Coast, at the La Mé research ened a security stance among family farmers, non-industrial palm oil production. This sys- station. The survey involved a sample of 80 which further widened the gap between a cash tem, which is based on concepts other than the smallholders, as they arrived at the La Mé sta- crop monoculture (industries) and local trad- profitability of estates, is connected to the mar- tion to buy planting material, in 1999. The ing by family farms, and raised the question of kets, capable of adapting fairly rapidly, and sample was not representative of the popula- how the different industrial, non-industrial and meets a certain rationality. tion of oil palm growers, as the survey only family production and processing systems This dual social and technical dimension needs covered buyers of selected planting material, interrelated [5]. to be reconsidered, be it with regard to who thus had capital for such a purchase. Lastly, more recently, new international con- research or with regard to the definition of However, it made it possible to characterize the cerns for “sustainable” oil palm growing, “sustainable” oil palm cultivation. profile of growers coming to procure selected expressed through new “multistakeholder” planting material [9]. consultation processes, notably the Round- Material and methods d) Survey in Ivory Coast, in 4 zones (Dabou, table on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), have Aboisso, Divo, Soubré). The survey involved been raising new questions about the future of The results described here are based on statis- 100 growers, in September 2000, in 13 villages family agriculture. The Roundtable, which is tical surveys conducted among agricultural chosen in these 4 regions [9]. geared towards defining a list of sustainable producers and on in-depth interviews with e) Survey in Cameroon, in 4 zones: (i) South- production “criteria”, has reintroduced the operators in these oil palm commodity chains west (9 farms), in the PAMOL zone (included in question of production standards, albeit in in Cameroon (since 1999) and in Ivory Coast4 the FONADER project), (ii) Littoral province (64 another perspective. Yet the process barely (from 1999 to 2002), and on participation in farms), in the agroindustrial zone (public devel- enlists family farmers who, being virtually national roundtables in Ivory Coast. opment companies and private companies, absent from the international consultation We shall be looking at aspects of the following intervention zone favoured by the FONADER bodies, could be affected by the introduction surveys (described in greater detail elsewhere, project), (iii) South (6 farms), a zone outside of standards, even voluntary, that will govern see bibliography): the FONADER project, and (iv) southwestern access to certain markets, European for the a) Survey in Ivory Coast, in the lagoon region. part of Centre province (21 farms), which is a moment. The survey involved 150 growers in the Dabou zone without oil mills and nucleus estates.
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