Can linking small- and large-scale Farmers enhance adaptive Capacity? - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 140

programme of the Tanzanian government's Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First)
strategy for increasing private-sector investment in the agriculture sector,
SAGCOT's goals are 'to deliver rapid and sustainable agricultural growth, with
major benefits for food security, poverty reduction and reduced vulnerability to
climate change' (AgDevCo and Prorustica 2011: foreword). In its efforts to target
smallholder farmers, SAGCOT is promoting outgrower (OG) schemes - a form
of contract farming (CF) that links independent smallholder farmers to a large,
centralized processing unit or commercial farming operation through contracts
that specify one or more conditions of crop production and marketing (Little and
Watts 1994). OG schemes have been established in various African, Asian and
Latin American countries over the past 50 years and have enjoyed wide popularity
among governments, donors and multilateral development agencies for their
perceived potential to deliver development benefits to smallholder farmers
and rural communities (Tyler and Dixie 2013). In combining small- and large-
scale farming, OG schemes offer an alternative to an agricultural development
approach that favours either large-scale commercial agriculture, or smallholder
production. However, the literature is divided as to whether OG schemes
represent an opportunity or a threat for smallholder farmers, rural communities
and the environment (Oya 2012: 4). This chapter extends the literature on OG
schemes and contract farming by exploring how OG schemes can support the adaptive
capacities of smallholder farmers and rural communities to climate variability and change in the
context of ongoing development challenges, opportunities and constraints .
How agricultural investments can support smallholder farmers' adaptive
capacity is a pertinent question for governments, donors and investors seeking
to promote agricultural development in Tanzania. Tanzania's agricultural
production is dominated by smallholder production (Hella et al. 2011). More
than 80 per cent of the population relies on agriculture for food security, income
and employment (URT 2012a). Smallholder farmers and rural areas face
numerous development challenges associated with poor health status, low life
expectancy, malnutrition, food insecurity, limited employment opportunities,
poverty, low producer prices, and lack of access to reliable infrastructure,
information and services (UNDP 2013; Paavola 2003). Climate variability and
change represent an additional source of uncertainty in this context (Paavola
2008). The projected impacts of climate change in Tanzania include a warming
in the mean temperature of 1.5-5°C by 2100 (depending on the emissions
scenario), with greater relative warming during dry seasons compared to wet
seasons and in inland areas compared to coastal regions of the country (Watkiss
et al. 2011). Changes in the onset and duration of the rainy seasons, and the
incidence and intensity of drought and heavy rainfall, are already observed
by farmers around the country, and are expected to affect irrigation potential,
agricultural productivity and hydropower production in the future (URT
2012b; URT 2007). Smallholders are recognizing and responding to climate
variability and change, although they face barriers and limits to adapting (Sanga
2013; Mongi 2010; Mary 2009).