Geoscience Reference
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variety that KPL promotes in its OG scheme is a publically bred, semi-aromatic,
tall and aromatic, and preferred for their cooking qualities and price premium
in local markets, but which are photoperiod-sensitive and can be grown only in
the main rainy season (Kafiriti 2003). The SARO variety regularly functions as
a 'hunger food' because it can be grown and harvested before the tall varieties
have matured, and at a time when rice prices are normally higher in the local
market, giving farmers an option to sell, rather than consume, the rice and
obtain cash (see also: Mwaseba et al. 2007). Participation in OG schemes thus
enhances smallholder households' adaptive capacity by contributing to income
diversification, stability and flexibility.
OG schemes and smallholder risk management strategies
The data do not support the view that participation in OG schemes directly
lowers production or marketing risks for smallholder farmers, but there are
indications that it may do so in the context of the wider production systems
in which OG production takes place. In principle, the fact that smallholder
farmers in both OG schemes produce crops on contract for an agreed price
should reduce the marketing risks that they face. However, no strong evidence
was found for this in practice. This is partly explained by the fact that the
marketing situation for sugarcane at MSE is one of monopsony: MSE is the
sole local buyer (Matango 2006). While the price of OG cane is agreed and fixed
ahead of the harvesting, the price specified in the contract is conditional on the
sugar content, or 'rendement', of the cane, which is reduced during periods of
heavy rainfall (Tarimo 1998). Sugarcane is highly perishable; and once it has
been harvested, heavy machinery and nearby processing facilities are required
to process it (Tarimo 1998). During the 2011 cane harvesting season at MSE,
heavy rainfall over a 24-hour period led to a situation where the cane harvesting
machinery could not enter farmers' fields, trucks got stuck in the mud or broke
down, and the sugarcane delivered to the factory on lorries contained sand
that was uprooted along with the cane due to the wet conditions. This led to
factory breakdowns and closures that caused additional delays to the harvesting
schedule. Some of the cane that had been cut deteriorated and eventually rotted
in the fields, resulting in a total loss for several farmers in Lungo. Other farmers
received low payments due to the low sugar content in the cane that was delivered
late to the factory. According to OG farmers, such losses are not insured; they
must be borne by individual farmers. Thus, production and marketing risks
for sugarcane are intertwined. On the other hand, since there is no other local
buyer for the sugarcane that farmers produce, it cannot be concluded that the
MSE OG scheme increases marketing risks for farmers.
In contrast to sugarcane, rice has vibrant local and regional markets, with
numerous participants and transactions along the value-chain (European
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