The combination of increasingly globalizing agricultural markets, rapidly modernizing local value chains, and urbanizing distribution channels presents African smallholders with considerably more complex challenges than those faced by Asian producers during the Green Revolution era. African smallholders today not only need to produce more efficiently but also need to contend with far more logistically complex and competitive markets. Growing specialization in distribution channels and logistics, rapidly changing and differentiated consumer preferences, and increasingly complex norms, standards, and other technical specifications place increasing demands on the production and management skills of the average smallholder. Due to their large number and geographic dispersion, smallholders are facing significant physical, institutional, and technical constraints in accessing technologies, markets, and services.
Overcoming the above obstacles at a critical scale and within a reasonable time frame calls for collective action. This Thematic Research Note reviews the evolution of collective action among smallholders. It assesses determinants of their success such as incentives, capacities, and social impediments. The Note also discusses lessons and options for future action. These include lessons from collective action for market participation by African smallholders, value chain penetration by developed country farmers, and natural resources management among pastoralist communities. The Note also looks at the possibility of using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to build the institutional, commercial, and technical skills of smallholder producer organizations such as to help their members overcome the obstacles mentioned earlier and effectively integrate the rapidly modernizing agricultural value chains.