Every farmer is a farmer? A critical analysis of the emergence and development of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana

• Published in: Geoforum Vol. 150; p. 103995
• Main Authors: Boda, Chad S., Ekumah, Bernard, Isgren, Ellinor, Akorsu, Angela D., Ato Armah, Frederick, Tetteh Hombey, Charles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2024
• Subjects: Farmer advocacy; Organizational development; Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified; Political Science; Resource mobilization; Samhällsvetenskap; Smallholders; Social movement; Social Sciences; Statsvetenskap; Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap; Resource mobilization; Social movement; Farmer advocacy; Organizational development; Smallholders
• ISSN: 0016-7185; 1872-9398; 1872-9398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.103995

•Small-scale farmer associations like the Peasant Farmer Association of Ghana (PFAG) have long been viewed as potential vehicles for agricultural development, but their intentions and effectiveness as political advocacy organizations remains understudied.•The context and actors involved in their founding (e.g. development NGOs) can heavily influence the structure and subsequent development trajectory of small-scale farmer advocacy organization like PFAG.•The form of recourse mobilization (e.g. patronage or self-production) adopted by small-scale farmer organizations like PFAG can provide both opportunities and present constraints on the organization’s development and activities.•PFAG’s reliance on patronage for funding creates challenges in terms of membership coverage and financial sustainability, as well as potential tensions between donors and PFAG’s own advocacy mission.•PFAG’s increasing interest in complementing its advocacy activities with service delivery may address some of the organization’s financial challenges while also creating tensions with their avowed purpose as an advocacy organization. Smallholder farmer-based rural social movements have been heralded as a promising source of political power with the potential to effectively promote sustainable trajectories of agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. However, the very early stages of rural social movement building remain understudied, including under what conditions such nascent efforts are likely to lead to effective political influence and foundations for broader collective action. Drawing on insights from organizational studies and resource mobilization theories, we provide an analytical narrative of the emergence and development of a smallholder farmer-based policy advocacy organization, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG). Through analysis of organizational documents and an extensive open-ended focus group interview with PFAG’s founders, long-term members, and current staff, we discuss how PFAG managed to overcome the “liability of newness” faced by new organizations, and how its resulting organizational structure influences its modes of resource mobilization and thus type and coverage of its advocacy and service delivery activities. Considering this developmental narrative, we elaborate several challenges that PFAG faces in pursuit of its ambitions to expand its influence in Ghanaian agricultural policy and practice. Our findings indicate the need for PFAG to address emerging contradictions in project activities and uneven geographical coverage, manage tensions between advocacy and service delivery objectives and to work towards establishing an umbrella agenda capable of providing for the diverse and evolving needs of their membership base.