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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:54:40 +0000
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I am Loupa Pius once again, from Uganda.

I am responding to Arbab Ghulam Qadir's request (Message 39): "I would like to hear from Loupa Pius about how the small farmer is defined in Uganda and other African countries and impact of different definitions of small farmer".
 
I personally don't think there is a clear definition of the small farmer in Uganda. What is available in the Uganda context and elsewhere in Africa is the definition of smallholder farmer/subsistence farmer with a practice of subsistence agriculture. 

Smallholder farmers in Uganda also known as small farmers: this is a category of farming system of who do not produce on a large scale but more seemingly for domestic/household consumption with less or even none for export or marketing. On livestock production, livestock keepers in Uganda keep large herds of cattle many of which are pastoralists and a few groups practice ranching and dairy production. The small farmer is one who practices small farm production with less effect of decision of marketing/sale but to store/keep for household food security purposes on daily basis. However, in Uganda, small scale flourish - the rural commodity markets inform of door to door purchase of food products an example of practice in Karamoja (where locals bring products to their potential buyers directly without access to other opportunities). 

From ETI (2005, page 13), here are some few characteristics of smallholders:
* They produce relatively small volumes of produce on relatively small plots of land.
* They may produce an export commodity as a main livelihood activity or as part of a portfolio of livelihood activities.
* They are generally less well-resourced than commercial-scale farmers.
* They are usually considered to be part of the informal economy (i.e. may not be registered, tend to be excluded from aspects of labour legislation, lack social protection and have limited records).
* They may be men or women.
* They may depend on family labour, but may hire workers.
* They are often vulnerable in supply chains.

Loupa Pius 
Project Officer
Conservation Agriculture Project -Kaabong
Dodoth Agro-pastoralist Development Organization (DADO-Kaabong)
P.O. BOX, 25 Kotido, Kaabong Kidepo Road
Uganda
+256784616870 | +0758382922
E-mail: daahman89(at)gmail.com, loupadado.org(at)gmail.com

Reference:
ETI. 2005. ETI smallholder guidelines: Recommendations for working with smallholders. Ethical Trading Initiative. http://www.ethicaltrade.org/resources/eti-smallholder-guidelines 

[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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