Smallholders in Africa are poor, have no voice in national discourse but remain the backbone of African agriculture. The emergence of FDI in the sector does not formerly include smallholders in policy formulation. This leaves them outside the direct positive impacts and exposes them to both anticipated and unanticipated negative impacts. This is made worse by the proclivity of foreign investors to produce exotic products for the international market to the neglect of primary products that feed into traditional food systems. One way of obviating this is to adopt out-grower system that empowers smallholders to produce for investor firms while growing traditional crops using modern technologies.
Smallholders in Africa are poor, have no voice in national discourse but remain the backbone of African agriculture. The emergence of FDI in the sector does not formerly include smallholders in policy formulation. This leaves them outside the direct positive impacts and exposes them to both anticipated and unanticipated negative impacts. This is made worse by the proclivity of foreign investors to produce exotic products for the international market to the neglect of primary products that feed into traditional food systems. One way of obviating this is to adopt out-grower system that empowers smallholders to produce for investor firms while growing traditional crops using modern technologies.