Livelihoods, institutions and the small farmer - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 281

12. Livelihoods, institutions and the small farmer
Ajuruchukwu Obi
Abstract
Without a question, it can be concluded that institutions still matter although there is need
for restraint to avoid a mindset that institutions are the answer to all the development gaps in
developing countries. Nonetheless, the case made for undertaking a comprehensive analysis of
the institutional constraints faced by the small farmers in Southern Africa has been justified.
The case was made on the grounds that a combination of institutional, climatic and macro-
economic constraints seemed to have led to some of the worst food and humanitarian crisis
in the region, culminating in drastic food shortages and famines and deepening of poverty
levels. It is expected that this will form a basis for recommending alternative approaches to
farmer support and other interventions to improve livelihoods and incomes and contribute
to poverty alleviation. The collective innovation models that are suited to dealing with the
inherent complexities and uncertainties in both the smallholder farming systems of Southern
Africa and the policy/development environment are recommended as one way to ensure
that increased knowledge about rural conditions as revealed by more robust institutional
analysis, translate into practical actions acceptable to all concerned.
12.1 Introduction
he central question posed by this topic at the outset was: what are the factors holding back
smallholders from producing at levels that would make farming so attractive that they would
continue to farm, or at least make a sustained dent on the extreme poverty that characterizes
this sector? The foregoing chapters have shown that there are a multitude of factors in the
production and marketing environments of the small farmer that can be considered under
the broad theme of institutions. The standard definition of 'institutions' which see them
as the over-arching environment within which economic actors operate to create wealth,
whether private or public, was adopted and their diverse intellectual origins were explored.
Whether we see them as 'rules of the game, formal or informal, including norms, or as the
enforcement mechanisms and skills that allow for the optimal extraction of benefits from
property rights, institutions are an omnibus phenomenon and their effects are felt in intra-
household bargaining, farm-level production, in marketing and distribution, as well as in
the consumption of farm produce. A useful analysis of institutional constraints will have
to be quite broad since all of the elements enumerated above are themselves influenced by
a host of other variables which are economic, social, religious, etc.
But understanding what needs to be analyzed does not answer the question as to what needs
to be done to develop the smallholder sector and improve the livelihoods. The focus of this