Livelihoods, institutions and the small farmer - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 287

continue to agonize about the serious problem of agricultural underdevelopment, especially
in respect to the circumstances of the small-scale farmer. The paradox that this class of
farmers who constitute about 70% of the population, maintain households that grow at 3%
per annum, and account for the bulk of rural employment, are unable to generate enough
surplus produce to be competitive, is of immense concern. Even if dependence on food aid
and emergency relief has lessened somewhat as a generalized response, all the countries in
the region still contain pockets of extreme destitution which belie the progress many are
making on the level of macro-economic management. Although this situation may seem
more desperate in some countries and much more dramatic, no country in the region is
completely free from the scourge of rural blighting that is associated with the high rates
of poverty, both relative and absolute, that has become endemic. Even in relatively affluent
South Africa, many villages present a picture of areas through which a violent hurricane
has just passed.
These pressures have obviously been exacerbated by the dramatic developments that have
taken place in the agro-food industry in the past few decades. Market reforms that were
embarked upon by several governments in the region, as elsewhere in the developing world,
have joined forces with globalization to create new relationships in the production and
marketing of basic commodities with far-reaching consequences for household welfare.
Some of the key challenges that have been identified as being linked to these developments
include: changing roles of smallholder sector, declining fortunes of traditional agriculture
in the face of stiffer competition both internally and externally, emergence of unorthodox
but innovative exchange arrangements, new relationships between the private and public
sectors, and different negotiating platforms and procedures at the global scene.
If at least one example can be given from contemporary experience, the recent conflictual
debates on climate change that have drawn in new players and new issues as water security
is identified as the nexus between energy security and food security and is manifested most
glaringly in the desperation exhibited by the poor who is disadvantaged on both fronts
(United Nations -COP15, 2009 and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 2009). There
are also much broader implications for national and international security if differential
impacts of climate change on contiguous communities and territories give rise to responses
and coping strategies that lead to conflict. In at least one case in northern Kenya, prolonged
droughts that led to high stock mortality has been associated with growing gun running
among local communities and incessant outbreaks of violent conflicts (Conservation
Development Centre-International Institute for Sustainable Development-Saferworld,
2009). According to the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), such a scenario can easily be sketched in respect to national concerns over resource
constraints with significant cross-border implications. It is not difficult to understand this
in the context of a region such as southern Africa where ethnic groupings have rarely been
discouraged by national boundaries to claim identities and shared ancestry. We see a lot