Price volatility is the enemy of the smallholder farmer. That applies when prices rise dramatically just as much as when they fall.
Current spikes in commodity prices and supply chain disruptions caused by the conflict in Ukraine are exacerbating disparities in world food systems that have already been severely tested by the pandemic. And smallholders are being hit the hardest.
According to the World Bank, there are roughly 500 million smallholder households globally, accounting for almost two billion people — with 65 percent of poor working adults earning their living through agriculture. Many live in countries caught in the commodities trap, which means 60 percent or more of their total merchandise exports are commodities. This makes them particularly vulnerable to commodity price instability.
It may seem counterintuitive that commodity price rises would harm commodity
producers. But the smallholder farmer growing and selling maize, vanilla or
cocoa on a hectare or two of land is in a very different position from a
multinational commodities business. They are lucky if they achieve a two-digit
return on their investment, and high prices are making that even more difficult.
There are a number of reasons why this is happening. The price of a farmer’s
crop may have risen, but so have the inputs — such as nitrogen fertiliser and
fuel — that enable them to farm it. In fact, according to the UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), input inflation has outstripped
output inflation
by 6 percent to 2 percent in the past 12 months. With the pay-off for investment
uncertain — Will prices still be high when the crops are ready to harvest
months down the line? — there’s little incentive for farmers to commit to
growing the food that is vital for them and their communities.
Smallholder farmers are also consumers of the products their crops are used to
make. In the poorest countries, where the poorest smallholders are, households
spend 60-80 percent of their income on food compared to around 10
percent in rich nations — which means they are disproportionately impacted when
prices in the shops rise. Any extra they can charge for their produce is soon
eaten up by the money they are now spending to feed their families.
Whether they can actually charge extra is another point of concern. Many live
and work in hard-to-reach areas and have little access to competitive markets.
They are at the end of the value chain; and their selling price is determined by
a market system which is beyond their control.
In other words, they are price takers, with limited power to bargain that
price upwards. They cannot raise them in the same way a retailer or brand can
when their costs grow. And, inevitably in this scenario, the amount they’re paid
rarely rises as quickly as it falls.
Where there are local enterprises that seek to pay smallholders a fairer
share,
they too are being squeezed from several directions. Not only are they
contending with higher input prices, they’re unable to pass on costs to local
consumers who have little ability to pay more. In addition, supply chain issues
such as sea container shortages and delays are forcing them to wait longer to
receive the value of their exports. In turn, they do not have the cashflow to
reinvest in smallholder produce.
On the ground, the consequences of these multiple challenges are stark. Without
stable incomes, smallholder families are less likely to afford school fees for
their children — which leads to an increase in harmful practices such as child
marriage; and for many, it means hunger for them and their communities. As
always, poverty causes social and political instability — which exacerbates
poverty even further. This is not the time to look away and assume all commodity
producers are winning.
In the short term, governments and institutions must step
up
and provide financial support and subsidies for smallholders and local
agribusinesses to weather this storm. Large multinational companies must also
make sure they are a paying a fair market rate to smallholders for their crops.
At the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), we are
always looking for ways to help viable businesses survive during a crisis — as
we did by providing
liquidity
to several of our partners when COVID-19 was at its height.
But long-term resilience to price volatility requires deeper change. Small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that work to benefit smallholders need financial
backing and a fair playing field to profitably expand in existing and new
markets. But these businesses are often viewed as too risky by local lenders,
which means they struggle to access the working capital they need to drive
growth.
By investing in SMEs in developing countries, we aim to help them enhance their
businesses for the benefit of smallholders — proving they are credible to the
local banking sector along the way. This might involve building factories that
add value to products; creating brands that encourage farmers to diversify
their
crops,
so they are not over-reliant on a single harvest; promoting climate-resilient
farming
practices;
and finding innovative ways to boost incomes, such as through carbon
credits.
Ultimately, our core purpose is to tilt the economic balance back toward
smallholders — so they can make a decent living in normal times and have the
strength to survive when inevitable price shocks strike.
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Sheikh Mohammed Belal is Managing Director at the Common Fund for Commodities — which offers a range of financial and technical instruments of support to meet specific needs of SMEs/enterprises, cooperatives and institutions along the entire commodity value chain in its member countries.
Published Jul 26, 2022 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST