- Most social problems arise from lopsided policies and the extraction and exploitation by marketing boards and brokers.
- The marketing boards cream off the small-scale farmers’ surplus, paying for their overheads, trips abroad, and salaries.
- Individuals alone cannot address the mammoth power of marketing boards and brokers, which is why social workers should intervene.
Small-scale coffee, sugar, milk, tea, tobacco, and avocado farmers cannot access local or international markets directly.
They rely on intermediaries, including marketing boards and brokers, who aim to extract and exploit these farmers.
These intermediaries are based in cities and urban centres. In the case of marketing boards, farmers are supposed to elect directors to represent their interests.
However, these boards often exploit farmers by dictating prices and siphoning off their hard-earned surplus, creating an urgent need for policy change.
Social workers must advocate for these changes and fight for social justice for small-scale farmers.
One marketing board held its elections in July 2024. Most voters at the factory polling stations were older women with ashen faces, wearing Bata rubber or plastic shoes, scarves on their heads, and wrappers to keep warm. They bore the physical marks of their labour, with no makeup, long painted nails, weaves, or braided hair.
They reminded me of my youth when I picked tea, coffee, and milked cows. I have three scars from pricks from coffee and tea bushes. These women reminded me of commodity centres with no chairs to rest on, no water to drink, or clean toilets.
After standing on the farm with a basket on their back, they stand again at the buying centre, waiting for their tea to be weighed and for the truck to arrive so they can load the tea. The physical toll of their labour is evident in their weary faces and stooped postures, a testament to their hard work and dedication.
Meanwhile, the directors and other officers in the factory and marketing board offices sit in oval offices, wearing suits, drinking tea, and attending photo sessions to demonstrate their “hard work.”
Female workers in the marketing boards have long polished nails, coloured weaves, high heels, and brightly coloured lipstick. Despite their hard work, board salaries are not equivalent to the monthly pay of ordinary tea pickers.
The marketing boards cream off the small-scale farmers’ surplus, paying for their overheads, trips abroad, and salaries. They dictate the prices for the tea without considering the farmers’ inputs, medical needs, and pension plans.
The officers have health insurance, pension plans, and vacation fees. They can build good houses in urban or rural areas, while farmers live in poor housing in rural areas.
They send their children to good schools, while small-scale farmers send theirs to dilapidated rural public primary schools. This stark contrast in living conditions and benefits highlights the need for social workers to advocate for policy change and seek social justice for small-scale farmers.
Social workers advocating for policy change and seeking social justice for small-scale farmers will explore various ideologies, social issues, economic problems, and political dynamics affecting them.
They will help farmers understand government systems and programs and the role of marketing boards and brokers. Social workers will play a crucial role in empowering farmers to reduce inequality and ensure equitable access to resources and services for different socio-economic groups, leading to better payments for their produce.
This empowerment is a beacon of hope, inspiring farmers to grow and harvest their products and seek better prices. Farmers can critically assess policy practices and evaluate the relevance of the actions of boards and brokers. Social workers will help farmers create communities.
These communities will unify farmers, working towards goals of social justice, better prices, and improved trade terms. Social workers will help them achieve their desires for well-being.
For example, small-scale farmers should have the right to grow, harvest, and trade their commodities without extraction and exploitation.
Social workers can also unify small-scale farmers for collective action, such as protests and writing letters to senators, governors, members of parliament, and MCAs to appeal against injustice.
Social workers can empower farmers to form local and regional associations, such as women banana farmers, macadamia farmers, avocado growers, coffee growers, tea farmers, and sugar farmers associations.
These local associations will foster a like-minded community to work together, trade in unison, and fight extraction and exploitation. Unity is strength, and individuals are connected by the goals of bettering themselves and by their work of growing commodities on a small scale.
Social workers will also be able to visit and work with groups for empowerment. Individuals alone cannot address the mammoth power of marketing boards and brokers, which is why social workers should intervene.
Social workers will help farmers navigate the legislature and the political, economic, cultural, and societal landscape. They will help farmers understand how the political environment influences policymaking in the farming domain.
Social workers will use the social welfare domain, comprising organised systems, to support farmers through programs and actions, including financial support, food stamps, subsidised housing, education, and healthcare.
Social workers will help farmers overcome dependency and indebtedness circuits. They will help farmers take control of their work and not surrender the fruits of their hard labour to brokers and marketing boards.
They will also assist in making informed decisions and implementing programs. Social workers will link farmers to genuine traders, suppliers, buyers, and extension services.
Through social worker interventions, farmers can also create their own revolving funds with low-interest rates. They will also be helped to design strategies and programs corresponding to the farming seasons — planting, growing, harvesting, and weeding — as well as adapting to changes in climate and politics.
The social welfare agenda illuminates social work and should challenge the dominant ideologies of the state, market boards, and brokers of extraction and exploitation. Social workers should advise small-scale farmers on the role of politics in influencing the implementation of programs and actions that support their farming activities.
Political parties’ ideologies influence social welfare agenda setting, policy proposal development, and how funds are allocated to agriculture. Social workers’ policy advocacy is essential for addressing the social and economic issues faced by small-scale farmers.
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Most social problems arise from lopsided policies and the extraction and exploitation by marketing boards and brokers.
To play this role effectively, the leadership of social workers is essential. They must influence, inspire, and motivate individuals, families, and communities. They must also recognise the multifaceted and interlinked nature of micro, mezzo, and macro issues affecting small-scale farmers.
Social workers must collaborate and work as a team to realise policy change and advocacy to seek social justice for small farmers.
