Recently a serious argument is going on about what the type of food production systems that can significantly address climate variability, malnutrition, hunger, food security and environmental degradation, precisely in poor Sub-Saharan AFRICA: "FOCUSING ON THE INPUT USE". If food production should use "high external" or "low external inputs".
Talk of modern day agriculture ...M Vita..
*Eighty percent of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by
smallholders (working on up to 10 hectares). While 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and 5 animal species, making the global food system highly vulnerable to shocks, biodiversity is key to smallholder systems who keep many rustic and climate-resilient varieties and breeds alive.
*Out of the 2.5 billion people in poor countries living directly from the food and
agriculture sector, 1.5 billion people live in smallholder households. Many of those households are extremely poor: overall, the highest incidence of workers living with their families below the poverty line is associated with employment in agriculture.
*Women comprise an average of 43 percent of the agricultural labour force of
developing countries up to almost 50 percent in Eastern and Southeastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Should women farmers have the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent, lifting 100-150 million people out of hunger. Women are the quiet drivers of change towards more sustainable production systems and a more varied and healthier diet. Smallholders provide up to 80 percent of the food supply in Asian and sub-Saharan Africa.
*Their economic viability and contributions to diversified landscape and culture
is threatened by competitive pressure from globalization and integration into common economic areas; their fate is either to disappear and become purely self-subsistence producers, or to grow into larger units that can compete with large industrialized farms.
Small farmers can feed the world...
Talk of modern day agriculture ...M Vita..
*Eighty percent of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by
smallholders (working on up to 10 hectares). While 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and 5 animal species, making the global food system highly vulnerable to shocks, biodiversity is key to smallholder systems who keep many rustic and climate-resilient varieties and breeds alive.
*Out of the 2.5 billion people in poor countries living directly from the food and
agriculture sector, 1.5 billion people live in smallholder households. Many of those households are extremely poor: overall, the highest incidence of workers living with their families below the poverty line is associated with employment in agriculture.
*Women comprise an average of 43 percent of the agricultural labour force of
developing countries up to almost 50 percent in Eastern and Southeastern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Should women farmers have the same access to productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30 percent, lifting 100-150 million people out of hunger. Women are the quiet drivers of change towards more sustainable production systems and a more varied and healthier diet. Smallholders provide up to 80 percent of the food supply in Asian and sub-Saharan Africa.
*Their economic viability and contributions to diversified landscape and culture
is threatened by competitive pressure from globalization and integration into common economic areas; their fate is either to disappear and become purely self-subsistence producers, or to grow into larger units that can compete with large industrialized farms.
Small farmers can feed the world...
Dear Anoop Kumar Srivastava,
Thank you for the answer and for the attachment. I will gate back to you after other reactions. Best regards.
M'VITA D M'BAMBI
The Permaculture garden is a lot more than an organic garden. Intelligent design uses free, sustainable energies and resources. Small farmers should not take risk through permaculture. Permaculture is not the solution to food security. The Ideal Permaculture ‘Farm’ brings production of food closer to consumers and the consumer’s wastes back into the cycle. It also reduces the energy wasted in transporting the foods by producing the foods where the people are. In permaculture, the people contribute in their daily life toward the production of their food and other needs.
Interesting response Dr Malhotra , a valuable input in the context of on-going discussion. Permaculture is like a permanent cover crops to disallow loose the tagged organic carbon through formation of siderophores , a way forward possibility to add resilience of soil on one hand , and reduce GHG on the other hand...
Dear all,
Very interesting topic. The only thing i think is missing and very important here is secure land tenure, because it enables farmer to invest on her field. I disagree with any direct external help to the farmers such as giving them fertilizer or herbicides, instead i believe the risk of production should be alleviate for the farmers by providing an enabling environment for every useful technology (access to input market, providing credit, better insurance and banking system, better market for commodities, providing knowledge etc)
Best
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