Hi everyone,

To avoid too many emails for all participants, we’re sometimes combine different questions related to the same topic, within one aggregated email.
In this summary email, we combine Question 4.1 and Question 4.2
- What are the future challenges for small farms and do they require new innovations and adaptation techniques? 

Q4.1/2 - Input aggregated on question “4.1 - Within your region, what are the three main challenges that small farms face in the future? Why? Are these different from past challenges? If so, why?"

1/ from David Harris <[log in to unmask]> (Kenya)

I am Dave Harris, currently Senior Research Fellow at Bangor University, UK and Honorary Fellow with ICRISAT, Nairobi.  

I think this recent paper will give people some idea of the magnitude of the problem facing rural households with small farms. The analysis covers Sub-Saharan Africa but is pertinent to other areas where land is a limiting factor.  (doi:10.1017/S0014479718000042)

Abstract:
Sustainable intensification (SI) of agriculture is the predominant objective for agricultural research and
extension worldwide. 
Researchers and policymakers consider SI to be essential to avoid global hunger,
improve human nutrition and reduce rural poverty while avoiding all manner of environmental disasters.

To achieve these global public goods requires a large number of rural households – ‘small farmers’ – in less
developed countries to improve their agriculture. 

Household size and farm size from 11,789 households in 15 countries from sub-Saharan Africa were 
used to calculate an intensification benefit index (IBI) that
reflects how much a household will benefit if intensification occurs. 

IBI is defined as the increase in personal daily income (cents/person/day) as returns to land (dollars/hectare/year) increase. Actual net
farm income from 160 rural households in each of three countries was compared with their IBI values to
explore the gap between potential intensification and current smallholder farm performance. 

Fifty percent of all households had IBI values less than 0.075 cents/dollar, 70% less than 0.125 cents/dollar and 90%
less than 0.225 cents/dollar. Returns of $1000/ha/year would result in fewer than 15% of households
crossing a $2/person/day poverty line; $2500/ha/year would be required to lift 50% of the sample above
the line; and even with $4000/ha/year, more than 30% of households would remain below the line. 

Since mean net returns from three sub-sampled sites were only $78, $83 and $424/ha/year the gap between
potential- and actual performance is large but, theoretically, amenable to closure through adoption of
improved technologies. However, surveys have shown that the available technologies would struggle to
bridge the gap completely for rural households with small farms. For many small farms, the gains from
adopting improved technologies are unlikely by themselves to lift them out of poverty and so might not be
as attractive as scientists would wish.

2. From Ruerd Ruben  <[log in to unmask]> (The Netherlands)

I work as professor and researcher at Wageningen University (the Netherlands) and did my PhD research in the 1990s on the economic performance of cooperatives in Honduras.

Smallholder farms (and agricultural farmer cooperatives) tend to face three major problems :
 
1.    Unfair market linkages; many smallholders face constraints w.r.t. access to input markets (seed, fertilizers, chemical) and have no credit access to invest in cropping system upgrading. Similarly, smallholders relationships to output markets are dispersed and market prices are usually highly fluctuating. Some options for contract farming offer opportunities for linking input and output markets. But thee competitive position of many smallholders is still too much based on cheap/undervalued family labour, without receiving a fair remuneration for their efforts.
 
2.    Climate change & adaptive capacity: cropping calendars are strongly changing due to erratic rainfall and temperature changes. In a similar vein, areas for tree crop cultivation (coffee, cocoa, fruit) are shifting upwards, thus potentially affecting forest reserves. Smallholder farmers adoption capacities of new farming practices and their innovation potential of farming systems changes are severely constraint due to insecurities and risks.
 
3.    Internal organization & trust; some farmer communities and rural coops are internally divided and have problems to adapt to changing demands from their members and from the external environment. Consequently, good governance mechanisms for internal democratic decision-making are not in place. Many service provision activities (technical assistance, credit, marketing)  cannot reach smallholder farmers in more remote areas. Small farmers’relationships with other value chain partners are constrained due to limited trust, low product consistency and low loyalty.


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Q4.2/2 Input aggregated on question “4.2 - To cope with these future challenges, do small farms require new innovations and adaptation techniques?  And if so, which?”

1/ from: Dilip Kumar <[log in to unmask]> (India)

Dilip Kumar: Adviser, Bihar Animal Sciences University (BASU), Patna, Bihar, India

Small farms certainly do need new innovations and adaptation techniques. 

Following are the potential areas:

1. Optimising water use at the farm level by making improvement in the irrigation system
2. Designing / improving agriculture machineries for de-weeding and harvesting - only hand-hold (tools) used for manual operation
3. Application of manure in farms as well as ponds
4. Integration and diversification of farm level practices including horticulture, livestock, dairy, aquaculture, etc,for inputs use optimisation, cutting cost of farming and ensuring availability of inputs at family farm level 

2/ From: Saminu Zawiya <[log in to unmask]> (Nigeria)

Small farmers should be taught on the modern method of communication. 
They should have more knowledge using social media in order to have more connections to other farmers and markets.
(Even) urban youth farmers have difficulties to find people in their industry, in order to establish (networks and) cooperation. 

3/ From: Philip Ifejika <[log in to unmask]> (Nigeria)

Philip replied on an earlier input from Paul Rigterink <[log in to unmask]> in Q4.2/1, in which he introduced the Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags technology,  an example of USAID's efforts to support the development of new technologies

Philip’s reaction is: "I think that the technology on storage bag for crop farmer is good and can be introduced to Nigerian crop farmers to reduce chemical usage in produce storage and its after-effects on wholesome foods.”




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