The contribution of smallholder farmers to the Agenda 2030

The contribution of smallholder farmers to the Agenda 2030

Wafaa El KhouryLead Technical Specialist, Policy and Technical Advisory

Division, IFAD

Soils and pulses: symbiosis for life - A contribution to the 2030 Agenda 19 April 2016 – Rome, FAO

The contribution of smallholder farmers to the Agenda 2030

• Smallholder farmers (SHF) are core for the 2030 agenda

• They are at the centre of several SDGs but mostly

SDG1, SDG2 and SDG15

The contribution of smallholder farmers to the Agenda 2030

• Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

• Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture

• Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Smallholder farmers are the main link between these SDGs

Proportion of national food production from smallholder farms• About 90 % of the world’s

570 million farms are small

• Produce food for a substantial proportion of the world’s population – in developing countries, producing 60 and 80 % of the total food consumed

• Smallholders produce food in order to consume most of it: they are the people requiring food and nutritional security

Why targeting SHF would make a difference?

Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty line

• Most of the world’s poor live in rural areas – rural poverty is acute in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

• Poverty among rural small farmers is higher than the national average

• Studies show a strong positive relationship between growth in agriculture and poverty reduction

• 1 % increase in agricultural per capita GDP reduces poverty gap five times more than a 1 % increase in GDP per capita in other sectors, especially among the poorest people

Why targeting SHF would make a difference?

• SHF include ca 350 million indigenous peoples

• Custodians of biodiversity, conserving many different crop varieties and livestock breeds

• Custodians of indigenous knowledge – through agricultural practices and techniques

• Productivity contributes to growth by:– Reducing the price of staple food – increasing the demand for labour in rural areas

Why targeting SHF would make a difference?

Diversification in smallholder farms• SHF produce a wide range of foods while maintaining

their main staple• With constrained choices and limited assets, they

diversity their farming systems and take on multiple economic activities (farm and non-farm activities and employment), to enhance their income and reduce their risk from external shocks (climatic and market)  

• Diversified production enhances diets, soil fertility and efficiency in farming activities and spreads the risks over several crop and livestock products in case of climatic and biotic shocks (droughts, floods, pests, diseases), and adverse market prices

Importance of pulses in the diversification and livelihoods of smallholder farming systems

• In crop rotations for soil quality enhancement: – most of them in rotation with cereals or intercropped with tuber

crops and fruit trees• As major food sources (dry or green):

– chickpeas, lentils, beans, peas, faba beans, soybean, pigeon peas, etc

• As animal feed source – seeds or hay:– soybeans, pigeon peas, vetches, etc

• As source of income sold at the market as grain or extracted as oil– dry beans, peas, chickpeas, groundnuts, soybeans, etc

• Legume trees and shrubs (alley cropping, hedges, intercropping)– Faidherbia albida (fertilizer tree), leguminous fodder shrubs, etc.

Small farms: positive environmental potential

• Local adapted varieties and landraces, maintaining genetic diversity. Seed usually self-produced and saved

• Optimal use of internal farm resources: crop residues as animal feed, manure as fertilizers, straw as storage and building facilities, local crops as income generating sources, etc

• External inputs are minimized: limited use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides (except where government policies are supportive) and heavy machinery

• Most small farms are rainfed, especially in Africa and Latin America, thus limiting the demand on the global water resources

Production efficiency in small farms• Studies show that within their

countries smallholder farmers achieve higher yields than their larger counterparts.

• Studies report evidence almost universally of an inverse relationship between farm size and productivity

• “Technical efficiency” studies reach the same conclusion: smallholders are indeed more efficient and produce amounts closer to the maximum output, as compared to larger holders.

Inverse relationship between farm size and yield

• At least 1/3 of rural populations live in less-favoured marginal areas, hillside or mountainous regions, or arid and semi-arid drylands

• Most agricultural lands are fragile: soils, vegetation and landscapes easily eroded: estimated 5-10 million ha of agricultural land annually lost to severe degradation

• Mostly rainfed cultivation increasing their vulnerability especially with climate change effects

Present fragility of the smallholder farmers

• High yield gaps: In 2005, yield gaps were estimated between 11% in East Asia to 76% in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Weak extension systems: weak technology adoption, knowledge, productivity growth and innovation

• Low literacy and numeracy: low farm productivity, technology adoption and productivity

• Intensive use of family farm labour: use more labour than capital to produce food

Present fragility of the smallholder farmers

• Unable to participate in the markets due to high underlying transaction costs (transport costs, geographical dispersion, small and inconsistent supply, private traders not interested or require high margins,…)

• Often dispersed farms with limited accessibility to resources, information, technology, capital and assets

Present fragility of the smallholder farmers

Future challenges facing SHF • Population growth: projected at 9.3 billion in 2050.

– Global production in 2050 should be 60% higher than that of 2005/07.

– ca 70% from yield increase: - has been stagnant for the main staples

• Climate change: risks and insecurities

• Land tenure and socio-political changes: urbanization, pastoralists and transhumance movement, community structure, national boundaries (water scarcity, degraded rangelands, conflict with sedentary farmers, etc)

Future challenges facing SHF

• Land fragmentation – reduced farm size and economies of scale. Diminishing the comparative advantage in efficiency of small farms

• Changing market system and sophistication in standards, regulations and delivery systems (urbanization and globalization resulting in changes in food processing and agrifood industries, procurement systems, etc)

Risks of no action • SHF forced to expansion into more marginal areas or

forests, with the risk of overusing the fragile resource base – entering the vicious circle of reduced productivity

• Productivity advantage of smallholders is being eroded: due to Prediction that smallholder productivity will increase at a rate slower than that of larger farmers due to transformation of the global food supply chains that favor large farmers and due to declining farm size.

• Resulting risk: SHF become marginalized and even more isolated from the economic environment, instead being part of the solution and driving the growth process.

• SHF become unviable economic units; more poverty and unemployment

• Extension and advisory services• Support to the establishment and capacity development of farmer organizations

• Investment in adaptive research for the development of:– adapted and high yielding crop varieties– good agricultural practices enhancing

productivity, livelihood and resilience to climate change and market shocks

Interventions in support to the future of SHF

Interventions in support to the future of SHF

• Support to the development of adapted rural finance products as well as weather and crop insurance products

• Investment in rural infrastructure- irrigation schemes, soil and water management structures, rural roads, rural markets and market infrastructure

• Proper policy incentives: supporting productivity enhancement, environmentally friendly and sustainable, without affecting the further land fragmentation

Conclusions• SHF function in diverse agro-climatic systems;

economies of their farms depend on their assets, skills and interaction with their local environment

• Future of SHF is difficult to determine but can be greatly affected by the government and global policies

• Structural transformations are needed- they are linked to land size and labour productivity that affect the small farm as a viable economic unit

• Changes in SHF directly affect rural poverty, hence poverty in general with major influence on social stability and direct impact on environment and the fragile natural resource base

that they may have a future without poverty

Thank you