Another palm is possible: small-scale palm oil farmers exercising autonomy in northeast Colombia

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of productive alliances and peasant palm projects.

Dimension	Productive Alliances	Peasant Palm
Organization designing the project	Palm oil corporation	Regional NGO
Land access	Land bought from a palm oil corporation or third party	Own land, often obtained through agrarian reform
Mode of agricultural production	Palm monocrops	Palm monocrops alongside diversified crops
Source of financial support	Bank loan processed by a palm oil corporation in favor of an association or individual	Bank loan processed by a regional NGO in favor of an association
Actor handling relationships with banks and suppliers	Farmers’ association when operating, individual farmers for dissolved associations	Farmers’ association
Previous relation with other members of the farmers’ association	Various. E.g. former colleagues at palm oil plantations, neighbors, or no previous relation	Neighbors
Contract with fruit buyer	25-year contract requiring farmers to sell oil palm fruit to the oil palm corporation	No fixed contract
Median land size per farmer*	50 hectares	10 hectares
Median oil palm crop size*	10 hectares	10 hectares

Source: prepared by the author based on interviews.

*Figures on land and crop size are based on the interviews conducted for this project and should be seen as references to specific cases rather than representative of the entire population of palm oil growers involved in each type of project.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.