In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Doug Saunders concludes that rising prices for food crops have turned the world’s smallholder farms (up to five acres/two hectares) into business opportunities for the private sector—in particular a small group of global seed and fertilizer suppliers.
That is, except for one problem: There are so many smallholder farms, he says, that it is difficult to put together a profitable business plan that involves them.
There are a number of reasons that Saunders’ reasoning is flawed.
First of all, Saunders refers to such small-scale farms as ‘barely functioning’. Yes, it is certainly true that the twenty-year period from the mid 1980s to the mid 2000s saw agricultural policies in Europe and North America depress food crop prices everywhere, and under such circumstances, it was true that many of these smallholder farmers were barely functioning. As a result, developing country governments saw little reason to invest their limited funds in supporting them.
But that’s no longer the case.
Now that global food prices have risen (and rich countries no longer have to subsidize their farmers) much has changed, including those smallholder farms.
And it’s not only the global farm supply companies that are taking note.
In Africa, some governments are rebuilding their agricultural extension services and are strengthening their public research–despite their very limited budgets. Many of Africa’s smallholder farmers want to take advantage of the opportunities offered by these higher prices.
Second, Saunders says that global companies are poorly equipped to deal with many small farmers. The most obvious solution, he suggests, is for them is to turn them into bigger, but fewer, farms—the ‘get big(ger) or get out’ policies that depopulated so many rural areas in North America. Only then will farming in the developing world be more profitable for these businesses.
The problem with that kind of thinking is enormous impact it will have on poor farmers. What happens to the millions of displaced farm families if the only alternative is a perilous existence in some urban slum?
There are other possibilities.
Rather than relying on expensive high tech seeds and petroleum based fertilizers supplied by the global agricultural supply industry, it is also possible to spread the use of new farming methods to these smallholder farmers—methods that allow them to make the best use of their own available local resources.
And by focussing first on improving the often depleted African soils, these methods build for the future and increase resilience to climate change.
Along with small scale irrigation, millions of smallholder farmers are taking up conservation agriculture and other ‘agroecological’ farming methods.
Agroecology is the science of applying ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable farming systems. Smallholder farmers may still use some purchased inputs. But combined with agroecological farming methods these inputs have an even greater and lasting impact.
A recent briefing produced by Oxfam illustrates the great promise of such approaches to both increase food production, and increase the profitability of these small farms.
The briefing notes that agroecological farming methods are more than techniques only. By focusing on a diverse range of crops to suit highly variable farming conditions, and by making farmers part of the systems to develop these new farming techniques, they also produce environmental and social benefits.
Conservation agriculture programs supported by the members of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank are working examples of these new methods. Across sub-Saharan Africa smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, are seeing their crop production increase by 20-200% or more.
Higher production combined with higher prices is already producing good news for smallholder farmers. Going big or getting out aren’t their only options now.
