Smallholders in agro-industrial production: Lessons for rural development from a comparative analysis of Ghana’s and Indonesia’s oil palm sectors

• Ruml, Anette ^[4] ; Chrisendo, Daniel ^[1] ; Iddrisu, Abdul Malik ^[2] ; Karakara, Alhassan A. ^[3] ; Nuryartono, Nunung ^[5] ; Osabuohien, Evans ^[3] ; Lay, Jann ^[4]
  1. [1] University of Göttingen

     University of Göttingen

     Landkreis Göttingen, Alemania

     
  2. [2] Institute for Fiscal Studies

     Institute for Fiscal Studies

     Reino Unido

     
  3. [3] Covenant University

     Covenant University

     Nigeria

     
  4. [4] German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, Germany
  5. [5] Faculty of Economics and Management. IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia

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• Localización: Land use policy: The International Journal Covering All Aspects of Land Use, ISSN 0264-8377, ISSN-e 1873-5754, Nº. 119, 2022
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • By successfully including smallholders, the oil palm boom in Southeast Asia has contributed significantly to rural economic development and poverty alleviation, notwithstanding its huge environmental costs. Oil palm production in other world regions is currently picking up, including in Africa. Yet it is uncertain whether the positive socioeconomic impacts from Southeast Asia can be replicated elsewhere. Little development gain may thus accompany severe environmental harm if oil palm expansion leads to deforestation. To shed light on the (prospective) role of oil palm for rural development we perform a systematic comparison of Ghana’s and Indonesia’s oil palm sectors at the macro and micro level, focusing on smallholder inclusion and using a mixed-methods approach. We identify substantial differences in structural conditions and policy foci that have led to two very different oil palm sectors. While the Indonesian experience clearly highlights the development opportunities coming with smallholder inclusion in agro-industrial production, our analysis shows that transferability to the West African context is limited due to regional specificities.