This is Daniel Nkomboni, again, presenting Southern Africa agricultural perspectives on Question 3.3.1 - How important is the contribution of small farms to food security:
Small farms are a source of national food security stores, e.g. government normally buys food crops, e.g. maize grain, for national stores. This complements national food coffers and is an important gap bridging process. Because farming is not specialised, diverse crops (from cereals to pulses) are produced and this ensures near balanced meals at village and national level. Small farms still grow traditional open pollinated varieties that are used by breeders to come with improved varieties to increase productivity and hence food security & nutrition.
In terms of livestock, although productivity (kg meat/area) is low, the total population of small farmers is large and therefore their livestock numbers are larger than those in the commercial sector and this constitutes an important national asset. This safeguards national food security. In Zimbabwe and Botswana, for example, over 90% of goats that are resilient to droughts, disease & climate change are produced by the small farmers. In the semi-arid areas where these animals are produced, they constitute the main source of protein and income for purchase of other food and non-food items. This boosts the economy of the rural areas. Due to the small farmers' livestock contribution, governments are now crafting national livestock policies that would motivate farmers to produce livestock for various markets.
As in crops, livestock from small farms grow under rigorous unfavourable conditions, and through natural selection the fittest survive and form the good genetic material for breeders to work on to improve breeds. Please refer to FAO farm animal genetic survey reports in southern Africa to check on the diversity of genetic material found in the small holder farming sectors.
Daniel Nkomboni
Livestock & Rangelands Researcher
Matopos Research Institute
P. Bag K5137
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe
E-mail: Dnkomboni (at) gmail.com
Alternative e-mail: Dnkomboni (at) yahoo.com
Phone: +64211244670
[Regarding the last sentence of Daniel's message: In January 2016 FAO launched "The second report on the state of the world's animal genetic resources for food and agriculture". The 562-page report, edited by B.D. Scherf and D. Pilling, provides a comprehensive assessment of livestock biodiversity and its management. The core of information used in preparing the report came from 129 governments that submitted country reports. See http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/380661/icode/ for the FAO press release marking the launch of the Report and http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4787e/i4787e01.htm to read the 129 country reports (including those from southern African countries)...Moderator]
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