The geography of agribusiness and contract farming in the Ditsobotla and Molopo districts, North West Province

Abstract

Agribusiness, on the one hand, has been on the rise since the 1950s because of changes in the agri-food system brought about by the introduction of refrigerators, the need for convenience foods, and the appearance and increase in the number of supermarkets. Through agribusiness, there has been a change in the organization of traditional food production. The horizontal chain from the farm to the market and then to the consumer has been replaced by a more sophisticated chain involving the (1) farm, (2) distributors, (3) manufacturers, (4) wholesalers, and (5) retailers - all of which add value along the chain. In Africa, the presence of transnationals can be traced back to the colonial period. Towards the end of the colonial era the transnationals initiated and promoted the cultivation, marketing, and first stage processing of crops. At independence the inherited colonial firms remained vital parts of the various national economies. It has now become difficult for African governments to do without agribusiness corporations. For example, Tanzania had attempted after independence to process its own coffee. However, because of a lack of skills and expertise, the government was forced to call on Nestle to provide marketing, processing, and training. Contract farming, on the other hand, is an integral part of agribusiness and offers farmers guaranteed prices for producing specified crops at specific times. It stands for a new means by which agriculture is industrializing and restructuring. Most importantly, employment opportunities are created. The research findings suggest that there is an ample degree of agribusiness taking place between small-scale farmers in both Ditsobotla and Molopo and cooperatives like Noord Wes Kooperasie. The farmers buy agricultural inputs and even machinery from such cooperatives. The farmers are also aware that they can add value to their produce by processing.

The research findings reveal a considerable degree of contract-threshing amongst the farmers of both Ditsobotla and Molopo. The farmers who owned no threshing machines often hired the services of those who owned threshing machines, but generally had to wait for the owners of the machines to finish with their own threshing first. The research findings reveal that the overwhelming majority of small-scale farmers aspire to be large-scale commercial farmers. As farmers on communal land, these farmers are confronted with problems of no control over the time of ploughing, planting, and communal grazing; hence the farmers' desire to "own" their "own" land.