Hi all,
Here is a last minute input on topic #2 "Small farmsĄŻ contribution to resilience of the food system"
For the sake of "completeness", I still wanted to distribute this, the input was sent, by error, to the wrong email address.
--Peter.
Q2.1/8 - Question "2.1. What are the ways that small farms contribute to the resilience of the food system in your region? Please provide examples."
From Pavlos Karanikolas <[log in to unmask]> (Greece)
My name is Pavlos Karanikolas. I am an assistant professor at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, and member of the Greek team of SALSA Project.
Recent research conducted in the Greek region of Ileia shows that the vulnerability of Ileia?s citrus fruit subsystem has increased by the processes of intensification and mechanization, as well as by the loss of biodiversity and tacit knowledge. These mechanisms make the system more vulnerable, thus undermining its adaptive and transformative capacities. On the contrary, a series of other processes have strengthened the system, such as diverse livelihood strategies on behalf of small farms/households; the significant role of some co-ops in the concentration of production, the collective bargaining of prices and the exercise of a countervailing power within the agri-food chain; the existence of well-established marketing channels allowing access to domestic and foreign markets; macroeconomic stability and low unemployment rates up to 2010; the cost structure of the three main products (oranges, olive oil and mandarins) which allows for the attainment of a profit even at very small scales of production for a significant part of the surveyed farms.
Moreover, the resilience of the regional food system is challenged by the hard austerity macroeconomic policies applied to the Greek economy since 2010. Besides drastically reducing available funds for agriculture, crisis has undermined two other critical mechanisms which for a long time have supported the persistence/sustainability of family farms: (a) the substitution of family labour with hired labour on-farm and the ability to reallocate family labour between on-farm and off-farm activities, and (b) the ability of farm households to finance their farms, in terms of working capital and investments, especially in times of losses. Both of these mechanisms are of paramount importance for a large part of the surveyed small farms, most of which rely mostly on non-farm sources of income for their livelihoods, while half of them are not sustainable in the long run without non-farm sources of funding. On the other hand, as a result of economic hardship of farmers, the use of chemical fertilizers has most probably decreased considerably in Ileia, a fact that will be beneficial to the environment, as well as possibly positive for yields.
Furthermore, small farms always run the additional risk of extreme fragmentation which constantly erodes any achievements, especially in the context of power asymmetry within the broader agri-food system. In other words, SFs have to reach a minimum size threshold, either individually or through collaboration/synergies/networking, if they are to survive. In our analysis, this is indicated by the high percentage of non-viable small farms.
Thus, serious concerns are expressed as to the capacity of the regional food system as well as of the subsystem of citrus fruits to respond effectively to the challenges they face.
The effective response to these challenges requires actions such as:
(a) the cultivation of new citrus varieties, i.e. a reorganization of the system through new investments, which is hindered by the unfavorable economic environment of austerity macroeconomic policies applied to the Greek economy since 2010; it is also hampered by the above mentioned mechanisms that make the system more vulnerable;
(b) the creation of a learning environment among farmers, which will favor the dissemination of existing practices of some small farms that successfully integrate scientific with traditional knowledge, such as site-specific fertilization after thorough soil analysis, the targeted-differentiated pruning of trees and an effective plant protection. This learning environment can strengthen the adaptive capacity of farms, and contribute to the resilience of the system after each successive shock.
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