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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Thu, 13 Oct 2016 11:18:06 +0000
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I am Ahamed Tijjani Abdullahi, agriculturalist. Research technician at the Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri, Borno State, Northeast Nigeria.

As an agriculturalist working in an agricultural research institute in northern Nigeria, I have the opportunity to interact and witness the positive contribution of small farms to food security and nutrition.

In Nigeria, almost 90% of food consumed is produced by small farm holders. Since attempt to define small farms can only be confined to a region, in my view a small farm is any farmer that produces for his consumption and sells the rest to meet his family's needs e.g. medical care, school fees, clothes and other basic human needs with the exemption of food.

The contribution of small farms to food security:

Small farmers harvest their produce, keep some for consumption and sell the rest in the village market where buyers come every market-day to buy and take it to the urban areas for further processing and utilization. Without small farmers, food insecurity would have manifested itself in all areas of Nigeria.

For example, here in Borno State Maiduguri, an area devastated by the activities of BokoHaram insurgency hindering agricultural production. As this year, only 18% of the agricultural land was used for crop production. The impact of small farmers contribution is now being felt across the State as hunger and food insecurity had been the order of the day. If not for the effort of government intervention and other humanitarian agencies, over 400 children died because of hunger and malnutrition and the crisis is still on.

Therefore, in developing countries like Nigeria, small farm is directly proportional to food security and without their contribution the impact will be felt across the country and the economy in general. 

The four dimensions of food security:

The availability of food can be attributed to the activities of small farm holders and access to food by rural communities which form 70% of Nigeria's population comes from small farm holders. Utilization of food can only be achieved when there is availability as the major marketers buy from the small farm holder they come to urban areas for onward processing and other industrial use. Food stability can also be achieved with increase in number of small farm holders as 80% of farm holders in Nigeria are above the age of 40. Youth involvement in agriculture is crucial toward attaining global food security and agricultural development and sustainability.

As such the contribution of small farm holders towards food security across the value chain cannot be over emphasised.

Ahamed Tijjani Abdullahi 
Lake Chad Research Institute
P.M.B 1293 Maiduguri, 
Borno State 
Nigeria 
Tel. +2347035852358
        +2348025561155
Twitter: @tjoflcri 
E-mail: ahamedtijjaniabdullahi (at) gmail.com

[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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