Traditional, indigenous, small-scale agriculture is often considered as a viable example of sustainable farming, yet how can these farms demonstrate the idea of making agriculture restorative and sustainable by relying often on old farming practices that are considered inadequate by the conventional model of food production?
We must look at sustainability in a regional context. In some places indigenous agriculture may be sustainable, but in most areas it can not meet the nutritional needs of the community.
Modern day agriculture considered the old traditional methods as inadequate in producing food. The main reason was that productivity levels were low.
However, we now have cultivars with high harvest index and high productivity levels. This knowledge of crop improvement can be integrated with the traditional management practices to demonstrate sustainability of a system.
combining small scale farming households into large scale farming can yield multiple benefits to soil, environment with more yield. see my publication in this regard:
Article Large-scale farming operations are win-win for grain product...
Traditional small farming systems hardly demonstrate the idea of achieving sustainability in food production as they are not viable except in cases where human labour is plentiful and soils are almost virgin with ample levels of nutrients for good crop productivity.
There is a lot of evidence out there on Sustainability of Small Farming. Productivity-wise, it could match Large Farms. The challenge is of a small farm generating enough surplus for maintaining a whole family. However systematic study of this subject is still limited.
The question, "How traditional small farming systems demonstrate the idea of achieving sustainability in food production?" is quite a relevant one to ponder over at the moment, as traditional farming systems, which are time-tested ones, are under serious threat due to a host of factors, including anthropogenic and climate change induced risks. To reflect based on my own limited understanding of the traditional farming systems in the context of India's North Eastern region, the region was once (and also now with declining trend) quite known for slash and burn (shifting) agricultural practices which was dominantly practiced by the tribal communities in the region. With the enunciation and promotion of more commercialised way of farming, the traditional systems had lost their importance in the livelihoods of the communities. One of the major commercial crops being widely promoted in the region was natural rubber, which has been widely adopted across the seven states of the North Eastern region over the past 2-3 decades time. Following the intensive promotion of the rubber plantations and other commercial crops, like spices, by the national as well as the provincial governments over the past two decades in particular, the traditional farming practices, including the shifting agricultural systems had lost their prominence in the region. Though there are contestations about the economic feasibility and environmental sustainability of shifting farming practices, a stream of scientific literature still hold the importance of these systems in helping the subsistence based farming communities the world over. The erstwhile and still co-existing farming systems (in a limited scale) in the region show a judicious mix of commercial crops as well as food crops integrated with inland fisheries (grown in the farm ponds), animal husbandry, agro-forestry, etc, which are considered to be highly sustainable in the emerging context of continued decline of the prices of commercial crops (like rubber and spices) on the one hand and the loss of agri-biodiversity due to the unscrupulous and unsustainable landuse/ cropping pattern changes.
Several valuable comments have been made. However, it seems there is confusion between two questions - are small farms economically viable? Are they capable of providing a reasonable level of living and livelihood for their operators? If so at what cost? Answer to this last question raises the issue of sustainability because small farms may be able to provide adequate livelihood for the current generation by adopting practices without degrading or over exploiting resources, in which case they will contribute to economic and environmental sustainability. However, if small farms use practices that degrade or over exploit resources to meet current needs, then they will fail to contribute to sustainability of economy and society.
However, sustainability in theory a scale neutral concept - both small and large commercial systems may use sustainable or unsustainable practices for different reasons. It is necessary to understand those different reasons and act accordingly to avoid using unsustainable practices.
Hope this is useful for further exploration of the issues involved
Mohammad Jabbar
How traditional small farming systems demonstrate the idea of achieving sustainability in food production?
The direct answer is "No". The traditional farming systems should not be seen as achieving something dynamic in terms of per se food production!
But, rather, these systems necessarily contribute to resilience of the crop mixtures or mosaics thereby ensure sustainability of the livelihoods (including meeting the at least bare minimal food needs) of marginal and small farming households. We encourage them to have a mixed farming system in their marginal and small holdings so as to get some monetary remuneration as a bonus in addition to getting the bare minimal food and agricultural needs on a sustainable basis.
Yes, these systems could be restorative too in addition to being resilient.
... "Difficult to call a spade a spade unless we can emphatically reject spoons and service spoons from this family of commercial products". ... Hope you may agree with the main answer (other than the last para).
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