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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Sat, 15 Oct 2016 11:08:08 +0000
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This is John Poveda, B.Sc. in biology with postgraduate studies in ecological agriculture and technical studies in horticulture production. I come from a long tradition of farmers in Colombia (Latin America) where I’ve had the opportunity to experience first-hand some of the strengths and struggles of small scale agriculture in a poor to medium rent country. I presently live in Quebec, Canada, along with my family where we have decided to develop our own small scale farming project based on the model of community supported agriculture (CSA). Having this experiences from both sides of the spectrum (from a low income to a high income country), I would like to humbly share some of our thoughts.



In order to keep my messages organized I will try to participate in the conference in a “question by question” basis.



Question 3.3.6: "The importance of healthy, balanced, diversified diets is increasingly recognised (e.g. FAO and WHO, 2014). In view of this, some small farmers may undertake crop diversification or diversify out of crops into aquaculture and livestock. Developments may vary across different parts of the world. What are your observations? Also, do you think that in small farms the share of staples in the output is higher than in large farms?"



From what I have observed in Colombia, crop diversification has been broadly recommended by different  government agencies i.e. (http://www.repository.fedesarrollo.org.co/handle/11445/61) and also recommended by international organizations i.e. (http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do;jsessionid=B71BD17786B2A3251B7B081F64338703?request_locale=en&recordID=CO1999000624&sourceQuery=&query=&sortField=&sortOrder=&agrovocString=&advQuery=&centerString=&enableField= ). The general idea is to improve competitiveness and increase revenue for farmers. [The first reference is to J.J. Perfetti et al (2013). Políticas para el desarrollo de la agricultura en Colombia. Published by the Sociedad de Agricultores de Colombia (SAC) and La Fundación para la Educación Superior y el Desarrollo (Fedesarrollo). The second is to J.B.D. Robinson et al (1979). Desarrollo de la zona cafetera en Colombia: diversificacion del cultivo, extension e investigacion agropecuaria. A report for the Ministry of External Development, London and the Government of Colombia...Moderator]. 



When it comes to implementing these recommendations, the adopted model has been mostly the substitution (whether direct or gradual) of one crop for another one, or sometimes the substitution of one cultivar (variety) for another one recognized to be more productive. Such practices are, in essence, the reproduction of the monoculture paradigm in which is said that “biodiversity reduces yield and productivity, and monocultures increase yield and productivity”. In this context, the contribution of small farmers towards a healthy, balanced, diversified diet is only marginal and in the best scenario, it only contributes to a diversified diet out of the farm, where the “new” products are commercialized.



In my perspective, the idea of crop diversification aimed to expand diversified, healthy diets would be better addressed encouraging crop diversification without the need of substitution. In other words, the approach would be to increase biodiversity in the farm not only to self-consumption but also with the perspective of commercializing the remaining harvested crops. 



It is clear that there are some challenges to put into practice this idea but there are progressively more examples in which the growth in biodiversity inside the farm also improves other aspects of healthy living for both farmers and consumers. Some documented advantages of this approach are provided at the end of this message.



John Poveda

Quebec

Canada

E-mail: jpovedam (at) gmail.com

Website: www.viacolibri.com

Tel (1) 514 553 8516



Food sovereignity: https://nature.berkeley.edu/kremenlab/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Ecosystem-Services-in-Biologically-Diversified-versus-Conventional-Farming-Systems_-Benefits-Externalities-and-Trade-Offs.pdf 

Resilience: http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/61/3/183.short 

Pest control: http://ee.oxfordjournals.org/content/12/3/625.abstract 

Ecosystem services: https://nature.berkeley.edu/kremenlab/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Ecosystem-Services-in-Biologically-Diversified-versus-Conventional-Farming-Systems_-Benefits-Externalities-and-Trade-Offs.pdf 

Peasant empowering: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150.2011.582947  



[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/434322/ ].



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