Chapter 11. Oil palm industry growth in Africa: a value chain and smallholders’ study for Ghana 385
Agricultural diversification and enhancement of rural livelihoods in the oil palm districts are also strongly
influenced by deliberate public policy. Smallholder oil palm farmers’ access to input and output markets
is facilitated by improved access to infrastructure, including health facilities. It is crucial to have public
policy that incorporates planning for agricultural development in other sectors, so that due attention
is paid to issues such as rural infrastructure development, the impact of HIV/AIDS and malaria, youth
migration and environmental management.
Strategies to address gender mainstreaming in the oil palm districts must be wide-ranging and based
on public/private sector collaboration in appreciating and understanding gender issues. The public
sector will have to lead in devising strategies that target female farmers for specific activities through
intensive gender sensitization. For example, the relative level of participation by women compared
with men in decision-making and in access to and control over resources and benefits has not been
adequately addressed. A lack of conscious planning to address these imbalances may result in men and
women having unequal access to the resources and benefits of the industry.
To ensure increased control over resource use efficiency and benefits for the smallholder female farmers in the oil
palm industry, one option may be for extension agents/researchers to ask their male farmer contacts to include
their wives during visits, demonstrations or farmer meetings, and to skew a greater percentage of their time to
working with women’s groups in the industry to find solutions to technical problems specific to women farmers’
production systems and to promote farmer-to-farmer exchange among women in the industry.
C. Policy initiatives to enhance productivity of the smallholder farmer
Policy initiatives targeted at the smallholder include the encouragement of estate-outgrower schemes
to enhance farmer access to best practices in oil palm agronomic management. GOPDC, TOPP and
BOPOP are examples of programs that have enhanced the productivity of the smallholder farmer.
In addition, schemes undertaken under the PSI are still in place for the smallholder farmers. Several nurseries are
currently operational, established through private operators in the Western, Eastern, Ashanti, Central and Brong
Ahafo regions. It is estimated that a total of 2.84 million seedlings have been produced from 2004 to 2006 and
farmers have been mobilized and supported. However, the PSI scheme requires strengthening; its impact has
been limited as a result of failure to link farmers through a technical operator, and lack of proper supervision.
The government’s subsidy on fertilizers has led to an increase in productivity and production at reduced
costs per unit area. Ready markets for the smallholder farmer in terms of sale of FFB have been
facilitated by the private oil palm estates. For example, it is estimated that BOPP alone purchased 11
933 MT of fresh palm fruits valued at GH¢11.8 from 438 smallholder farmers in 2010.
- Conclusions
In conclusion, we return to the key questions as to whether and to what extent an expanding palm
oil sector can be inclusive of smallholders and how to ensure that the sector’s growth is climate-smart
and environmentally sustainable.