From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

FROM POVERTY TO POWERor credit to invest in improvements, or simply to survive betweenharvests. They have little bargaining power because they lack transportor storage facilities, and are unable to offer a steady supply of produce.They are price-takers, not price-makers.At a political level, the voices of small farmers are often drownedout by better-organised and resourced groups of large farmers,agribusinesses, and city-dwellers. Moreover, women farmers faceprejudice on the part of lenders, agricultural extension workers, andfarmers’ organisations. Remoteness from a city or town, with theirmarkets full of hungry consumers, is a major obstacle, because smallfarmers lack the clout to get governments to build roads or othertransport links.Organisation is central to meeting such challenges. In Holeta inthe central highlands of Ethiopia, for example, where in 2002 mostfamilies lived on less than $1 a day, local farmers were efficientproducers of millet, but the price they commanded was barely enoughto cover their production costs. So the community established a ‘cerealbank’ into which producers ‘deposit’ their harvest and from whichthey draw corresponding payments. Today, they enjoy a reliable storeof grain all year round, sell into the market when the price is high, andno longer need to purchase seed.People living in rural areas have long organised in a range of differentways: trade unions, co-operatives, funeral societies, mutual healthinsurance groups, self-help groups, and savings and credit groups.Since the 1980s, the number of independent producer organisations(POs) has mushroomed. 56 Between 1982 and 2002 the number ofvillages with a PO rose from 21 per cent to 91 per cent in BurkinaFaso. 57 Between 1990 and 2005, the number of co-operativesincreased from 29,000 to 50,000 in Nigeria. 58 Over a longer period(1966 to 1998) in India the total number of co-operative societiesincreased from 346,000 to 488,000, involving 65 per cent of all ruralhouseholds. 59In previous decades, the reputation of POs in many countries wastarnished by government-sponsored top-down ‘co-operatives’ thatdid little for their members. Even today, in Ethiopia rural co-operativesare largely controlled by party officials, while in Ghana, they must pass asix-month probationary period that is often extended before they can134