Facilitating Smallholder Farmers’ Market Access
In the OIC Member Countries
9
CHAPTER 1: SMALLHOLDER FARMERS AND AGRICULTURAL
MARKETS IN THE OIC MEMBER COUNTRIES: A CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
The Definition of Smallholder Farmers and Farm Size Structure in
the OIC Member Countries
The definition of a smallholder farmer varies considerably depending on the country and
context. Most definitions focus on one or more of the following variables: physical farm
size, the extent to which family labor is used in farming, income from farming, and the
extent of market participation. Sometimes smallholder farmers are defined as farmers
who have limited resource endowments relative to other farmers in the sector and who
have diverse livelihood sources, with non-farm income being an important one.8 A
smallholder farm is sometimes defined as a family-owned enterprise that produces crops
or livestock on two hectares or less, mainly using family labor, and provides the family’s
primary income.9 Sometimes it is described as up to two hectares of cropped land
operated by a farmer with a low asset base.10 Taking a slightly different approach, the EU
defines smallholder farmers based on a set of criteria that includes the physical size of the
farm, labor input in farming, market integration, and the economic size of farm.11 For this
study, smallholder farmers are defined as farmers operating two hectares of agricultural
land or less.
The sheer number of small farms often represents a significant challenge in linking
farmers to markets. shows numbers of farms categorized by size for selected OIC
member countries.12 Many countries have more than a million farms, most of which
occupy less than two hectares. As Asia’s Green Revolution showed, small farms can be
productive and can be a source of profound growth, but the markets and transportation
networks needed to connect them to urban consumers are costly and difficult to build.
While many surveys providing data for the table are outdated, the case studies discussed
in the next chapter find little evidence that farm size is expanding in most African and
Asian countries. Even where there is evidence of consolidation, the pace of consolidation is
slow. The inescapable conclusion is that in this generation and the next, for economic
growth and structural change to bring prosperity to most farmers, the problem of
connecting small farms to urban consumers must be solved.
8 Dixon, Tanyeri-Abur, and Wattenbach (2004).
9 IFC (2013b).
10 World Bank (2003).
11 EU (2011).
12 Data are included for a subset of countries, as comparable data are not available for all OIC member
countries.