Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
215
Sub-Saharan Africa
Extensification
vs.
intensification
2010 production
= 344% of 1961
113
South Asia
2010 production
= 303% of 1961
0
0
150
267
Cereal yields (percent of 1961)
FIGURE 3.10
Cereal production, area and yield increases from 1961 to 2010. (From
IFDC. 2012.
Competitive Agricultural Systems and Enterprises
. International Fertilizer
Development Center, Muscle Shoals, AL; derived from Henao, J., and C.A. Baanante. 2006.
Agricultural production and soil nutrient mining in Africa: Implications for resource con-
servation and policy development. Tech. Bull. T-72, International Fertilizer Development
Center, Muscle Shoals, AL; and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
2012.
FAOSTAT.
Rome, It a ly.)
food demand and are to be competitive suppliers to local markets, they must adopt a
supply response strategy centered on the move from extensification to greater inten-
sification, which will require investments in productive on-farm technologies (IFDC
2000; Breman and Debrah 2003; Gregory and Bumb 2006). However, these invest-
ments alone are not sufficient to move smallholders from a dependence on dispersed
staple crop markets toward more integrated markets; they must be combined with
supportive public sector investments in infrastructure to reduce geographical isola-
tion of SSA smallholders (Livingston et al. 2011).
3.3.2 c
haracteristics
oF
s
mallholDer
F
armers
in
s
outh
anD
e
ast
a
sia
Unlike SSA, which has yet to experience widespread agricultural transformation,
most of South and East Asia have experienced two transformations in a relatively
short period of time. The first important agricultural transformation was the Green
Revolution. The second, more recent, transformation is based on smallholders
responding to growth in consumption and production of high-value commodities for
domestic urban markets and exports.
As a result, the economic structure of the region has changed dramatically during
the last three decades, with agriculture's contribution to GDP declining as the con-
tribution from the service sector increased. Region-wide agriculture now accounts
for approximately 25% of the GDP and 60% of employment, down from 75% in 1960
(United Nations Environmental Program 2002, 2007).
