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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Mon, 26 Mar 2018 14:09:41 +0000
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Hi all,

Continuing our e-conference discussions in our 2nd week, here is the consolidated input on topic #6, related to “Policies and small farms’ activities and their resilience”.

***Many of you have joined us in the past week. For you, just a quick reminder that we refer to each input aggregation with a code looking like this: “Q6.3/2” - Which means this is "the 2nd summary for input on question Q6.3”. This coding allows us to keep track of all aggregated input — Peter


Q6.1/2 - Input on Question ”6.1.  What are the policies (international, national or local) in your region that affect the viability and development of small farms, and small farms’ decision making regarding the amount and type of food produced and their ambitions regarding market integration?”

1/ From: Sylvester Kwame Osei <[log in to unmask]> (Ghana)

The implementation of good policies plays a pivotal role in small farming activities and also promotes cultivation resilience.

There is a policy framework (in Ghana) that leases land to smallholder farming cooperatives to produce rice on credit bases in Aveyime, Volta region. The policy guarantees the provision of all input needs of which the farmers may have had to pay before commencing cultivation. The policy also monitors the farmers in the planting processes and equally makes available periodic technical or extension services. Also, there is irrigation infrastructure provided by Wienco/RMG as part of the policy arrangement to guarantees production all year round. After harvesting, there is policy arrangement for their rice to be milled and topped with a ready market.

With this policy in place, the farmer needs not worry about capital to commence production. This is making rice production attractive in the area.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Ghana, visited the farmers in the last quarter 2017 to seek the opinion of farmers on the project. Their concerns included increasing the land size per farmer to triple output, and reduction in utility tariffs.
It is worth noting that with the implementation of good policies that ensure a win-win situation, farmers will work assiduously in increasing productivity.


2/ From: George Madoda <[log in to unmask]> (Tanzania)
This is George’s answer to Mayank Jain’s request for input on "contract farming" with small farmers - How does it help the cause of farmers? Because agriculture is not only a business but a way of living too. Isn't becoming employee in your own land taking us at an alarming pace closer to industrial agriculture?

To which George answers:
The cause of farming is realized after every harvest of crop because the quantity and quality of crop can vary from season to season. The contract between the buyer and farm producers should be beneficial to both from one season to another and it should not be, but can be the same (the contract amount). I too had three hectares where I had a contract farming in the Northern Tanzania around Bomang’ombe, Sanya station what we have to do is to make sure the soil is well prepared. We plant on time when rain is ready, we clear weeds properly, we use urea at proper time and incase warm attack crop we spray pesticide. This way of supporting each other the contract farming helps the cause of farmer but at the end we will deduct the cost that I incurred on the amount that we agreed on the crop after harvest. But there are those that leave the burden to farmers from farm cleaning to harvest then agreed on the price of crop in the farm it happens to those that are able to.

Let us understand that:
- Agriculture can be a business or not a business: this depends on the size of the farm and type and quality of crop that were harvested now the farmer can decide of what it is and it should be for.
- Agriculture can be a way of living: only when it is considered as a source of living where farmers depend on crop, they sell, add value, store for sale after a certain period and consume the rest.
- Agriculture can become an employer: it can recruit a number of people and pay them as laborers or contract people on seasonal basis.
- Agriculture can take us at an alarming pace closer to industrial agriculture or to industrial agriculture: all the effort that farmers make to produce can alarm signifying that industrial agriculture is needed, farmers can decides to organize into cooperatives and organizations where they will all be supplying industries with crop and the industry will transform, add value and sale for a profit or farmers  organization or cooperatives can decides/ struggle to get a loan to plant an industry or they can be funded with a plant that will contribute much development to their area where they will all supply and produce goods and foods for sale at local market and for export.

3/ From: Maria Rodriguez <[log in to unmask]> (Canada)

Maria is replying to the same request from Mayank Jain in input on "contract farming"

Contract farming is important  a source of income and helps provide a livelihood for many small farmers, but there are many issues, and the fair share of the revenues is only one of them. In my opinion, it often creates barriers to innovation and to the adoption of appropriate technologies for small farming. We have seen many cases of this, for example, crop varieties or animal breeds that are known to perform better in a microregion or under a set of production practices that are feasible for the small farmer, but cannot be adopted because the contract requires a product with certain characteristics.

4/ From: Iyaji Andrew Ukama <[log in to unmask]> (Nigeria)
Andrew is also replying to the same request from Mayank Jain in input on "contract farming”

I believe it depends on the model being used. The Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative Society, NFG-CS in Middle Belt Nigeria just started early last year by leasing up to 5,000 hectares of previously unused arable land from the community and are making great strides for agricultural revolution through co-operative and contract farming.
So if the land has been lying fallow and unused with no capacity by the owners to make use of it whether individually or collectively, it makes obvious sense to put it to use even if it means industrialised farming.
What is good in the case of NFG-CS is that the land is being leased for a period of time after which it will be left to the community. At the same time, the women and young people of the community are being employed and paid wages throughout the period from land preparation to crop production and processing. They are gaining valuable experience in managing a co-operative, organising and best practices. Most of the registered co-operative members are people with primary employment/jobs elsewhere who fund the farming of a crop of their choice 100% and get 70-80% of the returns.

The 2nd model is another crowd funding opportunity where small holder farmers can expand their farms with money obtained from above with net returns shared in ratio of 40:40:20 in favour of the crowd funder, the farmer and the tech organisation respectively. The tech company does the initial contact, vouching, training in good agricultural practices (and arrange for off-takers) for the small holder farmer while the latter does the entire work otherwise.

Having said this, I do share your concerns, given that industries here do have small holder farmer contracted.

5/ From: Prof  Sarjan Rao <[log in to unmask]> (India)
Sarjan is also replying to the same request from Mayank Jain in input on "contract farming”

One of the finest examples considered to be successful in contractual farming systems is " Contract Broiler Farming" in poultry industry. Due to emergence of various diseases outbreak causing lot of mortality in the poultry population in the commercial sectors and due to the threat of various zoonotic diseases, many broiler farms in small holder sectors have been closed and still it is debacle point on the economic viability of broiler farming in small sectors due to the above problems discussed.
However, these small holders have established lot of infrastructure like housing, cage systems, feed plants with the support of banking.This has happened from year 2000 and continued. In order to support the small holders to continue in the poultry industry and to make use of the infrastructure facilities efficiently Contract broiler farming systems initiated from some of the commercial large scale units (no need to mention the commercial names here) have supported all the inputs like chicks, feed, vaccines and support of veterinary services and at the end of the crop production inclusive of marketing. Finally the small holders get profit/payment per unit of chicken produced. Lots of risks being avoided in this system.
Similarly, some of the Sugarcane industries both in cooperative sectors and pvt sectors are presently helping the small land holders to support all inputs from seed to harvesting and marketing have been supported in Contract Farming in Southern India providing the livelihoods to the small holders and greatly putting their lands into usage under low irrigation input conditions.

6/ From: Dionisio Ortiz Miranda <[log in to unmask]> (Spain)
This is also a response to Mayank Jain’s request for input on "contract farming" with small farmers

Contract farming has arisen as a trend also affecting small farms. Although it is not, at least in Spain, an issue about policies, we have found that for some small famers, a growing integration with large actors (processors, traders, large producers) of the food chain has become an option to be (by the time being) economically viable. The counterpart is that they ‘transfer’ a part of their decision power to these actors, reducing the autonomy of the farm. The challenge is to assess if, in the long run, this will be a stable way to maintain small farms (in a context in which they keep disappearing).

7/ From: Winnona Merritt <[log in to unmask]> (USA)
This is also a response to Mayank Jain’s request for input on "contract farming" with small farmers

A family member is a contract specialist in the Agriculture Economics Department at Purdue. This is what he said when I asked this question:
I do think contract agriculture is designed to get small farmers access to markets and the contractors (e.g. exporters and agribusinesses that contract with them) will want things done their way for the most part.  So yes, I think it will gravitate more toward a business rather than a way of life.     Production contracts in particular limit the farmer's ability to farm their own way as the contractor will control most of the process.


8/ From: Blastus Kahemela <[log in to unmask]> (Tanzania)

There are some policies which are  to be considered at national level though some countries like Tanzania have to revise those policies which affect directly or indirectly the small farmers who works in those small farms.

9/ Also from: Dionisio Ortiz Miranda <[log in to unmask]> (Spain)

The administrative burden of dealing with a large number of small farms is an issue in those contexts where agricultural policies imply "growing bureaucracy”.
This is for instance, the management of CAP (Ed: CAP = Common Agricultural Policy) direct payments in the European Union.

In the Spanish Region of Valencia, the regional administration decided to exclude small beneficiaries (less than 300 Euros) from CAP payments. This is fully allowed by the EU regulations. When looking at the beneficiaries of other CAP payments (e.g. agri-environmental or organic payments) we find that larger farms use to participate much more in these schemes.

 The point is that, beyond, the ‘official’ discourses highlighting the relevance of small farms, the real implementation of policies tend to forget them. Small farms are not only ‘invisible’ in statistical terms, they tend to become also invisible in policy frameworks.



_______________________________________


Q6.2/3 - Input on Question ”6.2.  Can you give specific examples of how these policies have affected small-farm decision-making?"

1/ From: Mayank Jain <[log in to unmask]> (India)

I would like to elaborate upon response of Mr. Dilip on 6.2 (on neem-coated urea)

The brief findings of the study on the impact of neem-coated urea in India are as follows:

i. Improvement in soil health.
ii. Reduction in costs with respect to plant protection chemicals•
iii. Reduction in pest and disease attack.
iv. Diversion of highly subsidized urea towards non-agricultural purposes negligible among farmers after the introduction of the mandatory policy of production and distribution of only Neem coated urea.
v. An increase in yield of paddy to an extent of 5.79 per cent.
vi. An increase in yield of sugarcane to extent of 17.5 per cent.
vii. An increase in yield of maize to the extent of 7.14 per cent.
viii. An increase in yield of Soybean to the extent of 7.4 per cent.
ix. An increase in yield of Tur/Red Gram to the extent of 16.88 per cent.

Moreover, the availability of Urea during 2015-16 and in the current year is more than the requirement and sales. Further, some state governments have reduced their requirement which was initially projected. There is no report of shortages received from any of the state government. It is, therefore, perceived that Neem Coating of Urea has helped in curbing the diversion.

2/ From: Mayank Jain <[log in to unmask]> (India)

This is an answer to an earlier question from Irina Toma (Romania): "Are there other cases where innovation policies helped solve key issues related to Food Nutritional Security (FNS)?"

Answer:
While working on a project in Northern District of West Bengal; I had an opportunity to work alongside a team from Landesa, a rural development institute. We were trying to find out an intersection that could happen between Water User Associations & Self-Help Groups which leads to better opportunities for holistic rural development. Our work touched upon the issues of Gender in Agriculture, Land and Water usage rights. It formed considerable part of that project.

Coming back to LANDESA and their work in West Bengal, I found the model interesting and worth discussing in response to this query.

Landesa’s work across India focuses on four critical themes:
1. Develop innovative policies and programs that provide homestead and farmland for rural landless
2. Strengthen women and girls’ land rights
3. Increase land tenure security through legal aid
4. Reform laws and policies to provide legal recognition of farm land leasing for the rural poor.

As a mandate, Landesa only works along with government intervention and having them partners. As an approach they envision to alleviate people out of poverty through micro-land ownership by homestead development. These homesteads serves three purpose:
1. Provide land to the landless/women
2. On these, homesteads kitchen garden/nutritional garden are setup which tries to ensure FNS for the family
3. Once FNS is ensured, the surplus produce is sold in the market or local haat (community market)


________________________________________


Q6.3/2 - Input on Question ”6.3.  What are the most critical policies that are needed in your region to support small farm development and increase their role in food and nutrition security in the (regional) food system?”

1/ From: Raja Rathinam <[log in to unmask]> (India)

With my vast experience of Amul and other cooperatives which is dealing for supporting the small and marginal farmers, I feel that International organisations like FAO and UNO should come forward to support the small and marginal farmers by guiding  the policy makers of local Government and other farmers oriented institutions with the over all benefits to them.
Now-a-days the challenges such as technology, consumers preference, operational volume, computerization, climate Change, globalization etc are going to be much intensive than the past. Unless such interventions are not taken place, the purpose of conference will not be achieved. There is also need that we will all make combined efforts to help the small farmers with our continuous contributions.

2/ From: Mahesh Chander <[log in to unmask]> (India)

To address the challenges Indian farmers are facing, the Government of India has taken a few policy decisions:

1. For the notified crops, the minimum support price, will be declared at least 1.5 times their input cost

2. Agriculture Marketing Reform is being done at a very large scale in the country for ensuring fair price of crops

3. The government is promoting the Farmer Producer Organizations- FPOs

4. Dairy Cooperatives in India are shining example of Government's support towards organizing small scale farmers into potential groups where not cash income but also human capital development, women empowerment are given imporatnce. By the end of the year 2017, the cooperative milk unions covered about 177 thousand village dairy cooperative societies, with a cumulative membership of 16.3 million milk producers. There has been a constant focus on bringing in greater number of women members into the system, who are benefiting from improved economic status and training on improved animal husbandry practices. Of the icremental membership achieved till now, about 48 percent are women. Fairness and transparency in milk payment has improved by the installation of automated Milk Collection Units (AMCUs) and Data Processor-Based Milk Collection Units (DPMCUs) in the ewly formed and existing Dairy Cooperative Societies.

5. Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) is an exclusive Society focused on increasing incomes of small and marginal farmers through aggregation and development of agribusiness. SFAC has pioneered the formation and growth of Farmer Producer Organizations/Farmer Producer Companies, which is now being implemented across the length and breadth of the country. SFAC is progressing towards establishing an eco system for FPOs/FPCs to make them sustainable and viable in the long run. SFAC offers Schemes like Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme to FPCs to improve availability of working capital and development of business activities. SFAC promotes development of small agribusiness through its VCA Scheme for value added processing and marketing linkages. SFAC is also implementing the National Agriculture Market Electronic Trading (e-Nam) platform. The purpose is to provide for a single unified market for agricultural products with much higher price discovery for farmers.The e-NAM (http://enam.gov.in/NAM/home/index.html ) could be a big game changer for doubling the farmer's income by 2022. The Users can register themselves in eNAM through Mobile App. The eNAM Mobile App Android Version is available in google playstore. The Indian Government bullish on farm sector  to provide better Returns to Farmers via e-NAM. The e-NAM Project has successfully integrated 585 Agricultural Produce Marketing committee (APMC’s) of the country on eNAM platform.

The Indian Government is committed to doubling Farmers' income by the year 2022, for which government is working on measures including policy changes.For instance, addressing the Krishi Unnati Mela 2018 in Delhi, the Indian Prime Minister said, “We are working for farmers who rent agriculture land to do farming. To ensure that such farmers get easy agriculture credit we are in talks with state governments” , he said ( https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/agriculture/working-to-ensure-that-farmers-who-dont-own-land-get-agriculture-loans-pm-modi/articleshow/63345130.cms  ).



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