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Moderated e-mail conference on small farms and food security

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Mon, 24 Oct 2016 16:51:31 +0000
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I am Olubode Olusegun, from Nigeria, addressing question 3.4.2. 

In my own response, small farms contribute immensely to availability of food, requires intervention in access to food, although obtain food in the fresh state regularly but requires knowledge in terms of what comprises a balanced diet and the minimum food calorie to consume daily, and faces pressures which may affect food security. 

Small farms are traditional farms that evolve due to lack of support in funding, technologies and land ownership. Most lands are acquired through family inheritance and shared to family members or rented out to tenants who farm on subsistence basis for family maintenance and some engage in other rural economies. These farm sizes range between 0.5 to 1.5 hectares.

The farming methods are normally by intercropping systems, where farmers cultivate more than 2 or 3 crops at the same time, share seeds, join hands to do major farm operations and in turn go round to individual farm members (communal farming methods called 'Aaro' that ensures speedy operations and save cost) to carry out such major farm operations as clearing, sowing, heaping and weeding while harvesting is done by the family members. 

Because little profit is realized, there is little or no room for expansion at the coming season and the cycle is repeated year after year. However, in recent times, farmers hire between one to ten farm labours depending on farm size, and these are paid at the end of the planting season in cash or kind. In the cropping system, the main crop is the target crop for profit while the array of vegetable intercrops, usually short duration crops, are for family maintenance. Hiring labour ensures more profit is made for farm expansion but this is also limited by the area of land owned by family members or available for rent. Moreover women that engage in farm operations have no direct access to land but usually through the male family members of the immediate family. 

For produce that is destined for the market, profit is limited by losses incurred from poor handling methods, poor means of transport and lack of storage facilities. Furthermore, among the array of crops adopted as intercrops, certain crops as staple food, e.g. maize, or utilized in local diet, such as okra and amaranthus, fetch little income while intensively cultivated crops such as pepper or high turnover crops such as cucumber fetch higher premium. 

Although the intensity of cropping times differs for each crop, small farms engage in one or two cropping times but can be maximized at three cropping times. In the assessment of a fruit-vegetable cropping system for instance in pawpaw, vegetable crops improved farmers profit by 60, 72 and 78% at one, two and three cropping times respectively for cucumber compared to 48, 52 and 62% respectively for okra indicating that higher intensity provides better income to small farm holders. See Olubode et al (2012).

Moreover, since they lack access to fertilizer, unlike large farms, small farms contribute more to sustainability in the environment and social dimensions than the economic dimension, because environmental sustainability is top priority to preserve the land. The social provides stability in food to the immediate community but in economics they fall short of expectation and often cannot go beyond the local market. For
Instance, how much of the fresh produce in West Africa gets exported under a standard organization label? Small farms need capacity building to achieve that feat and this rubs off on the economic input.

Dr. Olusegun O. Olubode
Acting Head of Department,
Department of Horticulture,
College of Plant Sciences (COLPLANT),
University of Agriculture,
P.M.B. 2240, Abeokuta.
Ogun State, 
Nigeria.
Tel: +234-803 857 2707
Website: www.funaab.edu.ng
E-mail: oluomobode (at) gmail.com // olubodeoo (at) funaab.edu.ng

Reference:
- Olubode, O.O., Aiyelaagbe, I.O.O. and Bodunde, J.G. (2012) Responses of "Sunrise Solo" Pawpaw, Okra and Cucumber Components of Pawpaw Based Cropping System to Time of Intercropping. Scientia Horticulturae, 139, 71-78. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2012.03.003 

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