Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Smallholders are a very diverse group, ranging from commercially oriented busi-
nesses to poor subsistence farmers who are forced to buy food or to seek food aid
because their crop production is not sufficient to feed their families. While small
farms are getting smaller, they are also becoming more numerous and are increas-
ingly overseen by women. Typically, as countries experience economic growth, small
farms gradually decrease in number owing to land consolidation as other sectors
(i.e., industrial and service) experience growth and off-farm employment increases.
However, many Asian and most African countries have yet to reach that peak and
therefore must provide productive employment in smallholder farming for a large
number of their workforce. The opportunity to accomplish this is hampered when
small farms become too small to provide a reasonable standard of living and the
farmers resort to unsustainable practices.
Despite the many challenges, including competition with mechanized and highly
capitalized large farms (including domestic farms benefiting from foreign invest-
ment), smallholders and their farms have proven to be resilient. While smallholder
farms played an important role during the Green Revolution, there is a growing
concern that if smallholders continue in their current mode, huge numbers will face
unacceptably low incomes and be trapped in poverty.
Ultimately, a market-led approach that results in higher cash incomes is needed to
provide the capital necessary for smallholders in SSA to adopt improved technolo-
gies (i.e., fertilizers, hybrid seed, crop protection products, efficient irrigation sys-
tems) and for smallholders in South and East Asia to adopt management practices,
including balanced fertilization that will result in increased agricultural income,
productivity, and sustainability.
3.3.1 c
haracteristics
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armers
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ub
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aharan
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The geologic stability of SSA has resulted in a diverse number of primarily low-
fertility soils that differ dramatically in their ability to retain and supply nutrients
to plants, hold or drain water, withstand erosion and compaction, and allow root
penetration. Approximately 45% of the land is classified as suitable for agriculture,
including 16% that is classified as high potential or prime land. It is in SSA that one
finds the most pressing example of nutrient mining, where current mineral fertil-
izer use averages <10 kg ha
−1
, a level that is far below what is needed to replace the
nutrients removed in annual harvested crops. In 2006, estimates by the International
Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) (Figure 3.9) indicated that SSA was losing
approximately 8 million tons of soil nutrients per year and that >95 million ha of
land had been degraded to the point that productivity was greatly reduced. For the
2002-2004 cropping seasons, it was estimated that 80% of the countries in SSA
were losing >30 kg of nutrients per year and that 40% of the countries were losing
>60 kg/year (Henao and Baanante 2006).
Land degradation is not a choice but the result of many factors, including the
previously noted lack of access to mineral nutrients, along with increasing land use
pressures resulting from concentrated population growth (i.e., West Africa). The
population in the region has constantly increased for the last five decades and is
projected to grow from the current 800 million to 1.7 billion by 2050. Of the 800
