Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the case of the community managed systems, the farmers mostly have to
secure the market for their products.
3.3.2
Non-Government led Irrigation Systems
There are various investment sources for irrigation development on-going in
sub-Saharan Africa which are independent of government support and
interventions. These are purely private sources which may be from
individuals, groups, companies or communities. This has led to irrigation
schemes and systems developed by commercial farmers, outgrower farmers,
community/farmer groups, individual small-holder farmers and, non-
governmental organisations (NGOs).
Commercial Farmers
Commercial farmers are private individuals who develop irrigation schemes
to produce and market produce on a commercial scale. They employ
management and field staff and provide all the financial support to achieve
success. Commercial farms often have good links to and knowledge of
markets, local or international, to which they sell their products. They
observe strict production rules in order to meet the quality standards
demanded by these markets. Typical examples of such non-government led
irrigation schemes are found in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya.
The commercial farms use modern irrigation technologies such as drip
irrigation. They cultivate several crops ranging from flowers, rice, vegetables
and fruits in commercial quantities. They have reliable markets they supply
products to such as the European markets. For example, commercial farmers
in Kenya supply their horticultural products to European markets. Their
products are supposed to meet standards referred to as the ‚European
Retailers Working Group on Good Agricultural Practices‛ (EUREP-GAP),
which include European Union regulations for all foods sold in member
states (Mati and De Vries, 2005).
Outgrower Farmers
Outgrower farmers are small-scale farmers who grow crops for commercial
farmers who have established market linkages. Their irrigation practice is
facilitated by well-organised partnerships between them and the large-scale
commercial farmers. Such partnerships involve developing memorandums of
understanding (MoUs) between the commercial farmers and the outgrowers
either as individuals or groups of small-scale outgrowers. The MoUs cover all
aspects of crop production, quality control, record keeping and marketing
rights. The large-scale commercial farmer is responsible for facilitating the
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