SMALL-SCALE VERSUS LARGE- SCALE COCOA FARMING IN CAMEROON By
Chi Bemieh Fule August 6, 2013 THESIS PRESENTATION
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O UTLINE OF TODAY S PRESENTATION 1. Justification of the study
2. Problem statement 3. Hypotheses 4. Conceptual framework 5.
Research methodology 6. Results 7. Conclusion 8. Recommendations 9.
Future research
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1. J USTIFICATION OF THE STUDY In 2005, smallholdings were home
to 450 million households (2 billion people). This population
constitutes 92% of the 1.1 billion dollar-poor. Since 2000, more
attention was paid to smallholders to achieve sustainable growth
and development in Africa eg. via the CAADP programme However some
discriminative land policies among others favour large-scale
farming.
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C ONT D Cameroon is fifth world cocoa producer; cocoa
contributes to 6% of GDP; CMR 2000 survey: employs 260,000 farm
families; 1-3 ha mean farm size; low yield of 300kg/ha; mean age of
trees = 40 years; low maintenance of cocoa farms In 2006, govt
targeted to raise annual production from 137,000t to 300,000t in
2015.
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Strategy: Identify, multiply & distribute improved cocoa
breeds; organize farmers into cooperatives and ease their access to
land, credit & technical assistance; etc In 2011, it was
alleged that the revitalization program encouraged large-scale
farming (esp. elites) at the expense of already existing small
cocoa farmers. Opportunity or threat to small farmers ???
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According to economic theory, small-scale farming is more
efficient than large-scale farming when using constant returns to
scale technologies (manual labour) in the presence of high
transaction costs. What economic rationale could explain the
expansion of cocoa farmlands? 2. P ROBLEM S TATEMENT
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3. P URPOSE OF THE STUDY Compare the economic performances of
small-scale and large-scale cocoa farmers both at the level of
production and marketing.
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4. H YPOTHESES 1. Small-scale farms have higher yield compared
to large-scale farms. 2. Small-scale farmers have a cost advantage
over large-scale farmers. 3. Small-scale farms are more profitable
to operate than large-scale farms.
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5. C ONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The economics of farm size (Eastwood
et al., 2008) HH with heterogeneous endowment in K & L,
(relative prices of inputs, land tenancy, level of development
& techno), end up having different farm sizes. The efficient
farm size increases with HH size in the presence of transaction
costs
Farm yield or land productivity (kilograms per hectare) Factors
affecting yield Treeage= mean age of cocoa trees (years) Density=
planting density of cocoa trees (trees/ ha) V= socioeconomic
variables like age of farmer, level of educ, HH size,... Average
Cost per hectare (CFA F per hectare) = expenditures in CFA F, while
k stands for wages, equipment, fertilizers, and land,
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Profitability (revenue-cost ratio) Factors affecting
profitability Labour = annual expenditures on the wages (CFA F)
Land = annual expenditures on land (CFA F) Phyto = annual
expenditures on phytosanitary products (CFA F) Plt.mat = annual
expenditures on planting materials (CFA F) Equipt = annual
expenditures on farm equipment (CFA F) The betas are the parameters
to be estimated while is the stochastic term.
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Marketing strategies Channel by which cocoa beans are conveyed
to the market (group selling or individual) Reasons for the choice
of channel Knowledge about prevailing market price Effective
selling price of farmers produce
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6. R ESEARCH METHODOLOGY Figure 3. Map of the Nyong &
Mfoumou Division of the Centre Region of Cameroon, Central Africa
Primary data from cocoa farmers in Nyong and Mfoumou Division of
the Centre Region of Cameroon. Selective and Simple Random Sampling
Technique Field survey carried out in March 2013 40 valid
questionnaires administered.
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7. RESULTS VariableMean Age (years)51.8 (10.3) Education
(years) 7.0 (6.0) Experience (years) 15.5 (16.4) Farm size
(hectares) 4.17 (3.71) Tree age (years) 31.24 (22.35) Table 1.
Variables described Fig 2. Input expenditure shares
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F ARMER CHARACTERISTICS ACCORDING TO T HEIR CATEGORIES
Variables Small-scale (0.25 2.00 ha) Medium-scale (2.50 4.00 ha)
Large-scale (5.00 20.00 ha) Age of farmer (years)48.7 (9.1)52,7
(12,63)54,5 (9,48) Household size5 (1.87)5 (3,25)11 (9,16)
Education (years)7 (4.0)8 (4,47)9 (6,06) Experience (years)10
(9,7)15,5 (15,5)21,28 (21,31) Training8 (53.3%)7 (63.6%)12 (85.7%)
Actual farm size in production (ha)1.35 (0.51)3.41 (0.73)7.78
(4.10) Total cocoa farm size (ha)2.55 (1.63)5.00 (2.50)10.00 (6.14)
Average age of trees (years)27.9 (21.03)29.2 (25.9)36.4 (21.4)
Planting density (no. plants per ha)1392 (224.92)1301 (426.11)1193
(153.76) Group selling price (CFA F/ Kg)877.5
(431.7)995.0(506.4)917.5(432.3) Individual selling price (CFA F/
Kg)735.7 (405.8)818.7 (414.2)856.0 (403.7)
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Only household size was observed to be statistically
significantly different across farmer categories (99% CI) Fig 3.
The input shares in total expenditures based on farm
categories
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F ARM YIELD Level of education and household size are relevant
for land productivity (HC1 std errors). CoefficientStd.
Errorp-value const-4.2990311.90030.72053
l_Density1.652511.192650.17644 l_Treeage-0.2440490.4467090.58902
l_educ-1.168990.4759120.02026**
l_Experience-0.01451320.3254520.96474
l_hhsize1.039960.3959280.01363** l_age-0.4982131.867850.79156
Regression results on log (yield)
