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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:57:38 +0000
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Dear Participants,

This e-mail conference began on Monday 10 October and the last day for sending messages to me for this conference is Sunday 23 October (deadline is midnight, Rome time). The final messages will be posted on 24 October and the conference is then finished. 

I encourage you now to participate actively in the remaining days!

About 460 people have subscribed to the conference and it represents a unique opportunity for people around the world to share and discuss their knowledge, lessons learned and perspectives on the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition. 

I want to sincerely thank all of you who have sent so many interesting and informative messages so far. They are all available on the web, at https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=Small-farms-L . The message archives are searchable, with a 'free text' search button on the right hand side of the webpage. All of the messages are numbered in chronological order. At the end of the conference, I plan to put all the messages into a single PDF document.

The 15 questions to be addressed in the conference were provided in Section 3 of the conference background document and they are reproduced below. 

In addition, while addressing these questions, some participants raised further relevant questions. Here, I am thinking of the contributions of Lee-Ann Sutherland (Message 49) and Karlheinz Knickel (Message 51) about applying a 'regional food systems approach' or Dominic Glover (Message 17) and Siera Vercillo (Message 36) about unsubstantiated global claims about smallholders and the need for reliable data and evidence. 

So, there is lots to discuss and lots of knowledge to share! 

Send your messages directly to [log in to unmask] 

With best regards

John

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3. Main questions for discussion

The e-mail conference allows participants from around the world to share and discuss their experiences, lessons learned and perspectives on the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition. The specific kinds of questions to be discussed by participants in the conference are described below. When addressing specific questions, it would be good if participants could discuss specific examples from their own work, experience or region as well as any lessons learned.

3.1 Questions related to defining small farms 

As noted elsewhere (e.g. Davidova et al., 2013; HLPE, 2013; CFS, 2015), there is no universally accepted definition for a small farm (or a smallholder), although the most common criterion used for this purpose is farmland area. Availability of data for additional relevant criteria (e.g. farm income) may be a challenge. Furthermore, if wishing to compare results across regions, land is the most easily comparable criterion (HLPE, 2013). 

3.1.1 The SALSA research project aims to study the current and potential contribution of small farms (and related small food businesses) to food security and nutrition. A key question will be the definition of the land size threshold to classify farms as small. 

- What is the most appropriate threshold to use for such research purposes? 
- Should the threshold be adapted to regional and national realities? (As pointed out in HLPE (2013), a farm of 50 hectares would be considered small in some countries, such as Brazil, but big in others, such as India or China). 
- In order to capture as many small farms as possible which potentially contribute to food security and nutrition, it might be considered useful to set a low threshold in the research project. If so, what should it be? As for the upper threshold, should the lower threshold be adapted to regional and national realities? In addition, should the project aim to include the contribution of urban gardens and home gardens to food security and nutrition?

If possible, provide specific examples where you or others have applied certain land size thresholds in practice for research on small farms and share any lessons learned from the use of thresholds. In answering these questions, you may also wish to consider the kind of farming involved. For example, FAO (2013) shows that the criteria used by different countries for including holdings in their national census can include, inter alia, the area of cultivated crops, the number of cattle, sheep or other animal species and the size of fish ponds.

3.1.2 Ideally, when carrying out research on small farms in specific regions, additional criteria to land area would be used to determine whether they should be classified as small or not, such as the number of people working part- or full-time on the farm; the number of commodities produced and degree of specialisation; and farm income or sales. For example, farms with a lot of land and capital can be managed extensively and yield limited turnover, while small plots of land can produce high-value commodities, be intensively managed and give high economic returns. 

- What are the most important additional criteria that should be used in such a research project? If possible, provide specific examples where you or others have used additional criteria in practice in research on small farms and share any lessons learned from using them.

3.1.3 The criteria used for classifying farms as small may differ for research or policy purposes. When policy-makers wish to make policies focusing on small farms (or smallholders), what criteria should they use to classify farms as small? Again, if possible, provide specific examples where you or others have applied such criteria in practice and share any lessons learned from use of the criteria.

3.2 Questions related to small farms within a food system

As described in Section 2.4, SALSA will analyse the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition in 30 specific European and African regions using the food systems approach. 

3.2.1 Compared to other approaches, what are the advantages and disadvantages of applying this food systems approach to study the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition? 

3.2.2 What is the best way to define the boundaries and characteristics of a regional food system? 

3.2.3 In quantitative terms, what methods would you use to assess the contribution of small farms in a particular region to meeting the demand for food within the same region?

3.3 Questions related to small farms and their role in food security and nutrition

3.3.1 How important is the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition? Why?

3.3.2 As outlined in Section 2.1, there are four dimensions of food security, namely the availability of food; access to food; utilisation of food; and food stability. How exactly do small farms contribute to each of the dimensions of food security? If possible, provide specific examples from your own work, experience or region.

3.3.3 Food security can be studied at different levels/scales, such as the individual, household, local, national and global level. The level at which it is studied will influence the analytical instruments that are used (e.g. analysis of national statistical data or organization of local-level interviews) and the potential relevance of the results. Which is the most appropriate level to use when we wish to study the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition?

3.3.4 Many small farmers participate in the rural non-farm economy to generate additional income. Does this increase the contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition?

3.3.5 As described in Section 2.2, policy-makers worldwide are seeking to tackle the 'triple burden' of malnutrition - undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity. Do small farms have a particular role to play in meeting the challenges of any specific one or all of these three 'burdens'? If so, how?

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?

3.3.7 As mentioned briefly in Section 1.1, the future presents a number of major challenges for humankind, including population growth, natural resource depletion and climate change. Given these major challenges, do you expect that small farms will make a greater contribution to food security and nutrition in the future than the present? If so, why?

3.4 Questions related to small farms and achieving food security and improved nutrition in a sustainable way

3.4.1 Driven by the SDGs, sustainability development is now central in the international development agenda. Sustainable development involves three dimensions - environmental, social and economic - and it is in manifold ways connected with food security and nutrition. How can small farms specifically contribute to achieving food security and improved nutrition in a sustainable way? 

3.4.2 Of the three sustainability dimensions, to which one do small farms contribute most to sustainable food security and nutrition?

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