 Agriculture has to assure food for all people on the globe, where family farmers have an important role to play. In many regions of the world, small-scale family farmers produce the food for local communities, although their land and labour productivity is often low. Promoting knowledge and innovation can improve this productivity. Green Revolution technologies, like agrochemicals, have proven to increase small-scale farmers’ yields.
Yet, family farming should not be romanticised. Weeding and ploughing for a meagre crop is not romantic, but pure poverty. In the future, family farming will lose its relevance. Farmers’ children will move to the city or find other forms of employment, and more labour will be needed for other work, urging the remaining farmers to increase the scale of their farming. Society should embrace such dynamics. Supporting existing structures and romanticising the poor life of farmers in fact consolidates poverty.
Small-scale farming has an environmentally friendly reputation, but actually a lot of it badly affects the environment. Small-scale farmers are often poor and poor farmers have limited access to external inputs, so they exhaust the soil. Consequently, productivity decreases and farmers become even poorer. In my view, environmental degradation is not only a result of wealth, but also of poverty.
Therefore poverty reduction should be the overarching policy objective, also for the sake of our environment. Family farming will remain important for several more generations to come. Local and regional food production will increase access to food and stimulate local economies. Governments can therefore choose to stimulate family farming, but it is an illusion to think that as a government you have a choice between family farming and industrial agriculture – especially when forces in society to support the latter are so strong. Industrial agriculture alone can realise food security – but that would undermine the social fabric of rural societies, which is not desirable. But smallscale farming badly needs public investments such as knowledge, infrastructure, inputs and marketing. There needs to be a balance between industrial agriculture and family farming.
Small-scale farming in itself does not hamper economic growth, and under the right circumstances it can even promote it. But not on its own.”
Text: Rudy Rabbinge
Rudy Rabbinge can be reached at rudy.rabbinge[at]wur.nl |
 Family farming, in its various shapes worldwide, is more than just the application of technologies. Over millennia, family farmers have developed technologies and ensured the world’s food supply in everchanging agricultural systems that were adapted to local environmental and cultural conditions.
Over the past decades, a “scientific” research and development perspective has accelerated agricultural modernisation. This perspective led to the widespread adoption of unsustainable agriculture. For example, in Latin America, you can see large-scale mono-cropping of commodities for the world market – such as agri-fuels. The aim of such agriculture is not to feed the world’s hungry people, but instead to feed the hunger for profit of big companies. In the process, industrial agriculture does a lot of damage. It clears rich forests, it needs expensive agro-chemicals and seeds, and makes food production dependent on financial capital and dwindling fossil fuel stocks. But worse are its impacts on society: industrial agriculture reduces the flexibility of agroecosystems, so badly needed in times of societal and climate change. The result has been a social, economic and ecological crisis in agriculture. The prices of food and agricultural inputs fluctuate, a land area the size of Brazil is degraded, and 70 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. This multi-faceted crisis is linked to food insecurity, to the rising cost of food, and to climate change.
At the same time, family farming remains an important activity for rural families, against all expectations and restrictive policies. LEISA Magazine (now Farming Matters) is continuously presenting experiences that show its potential, especially for vulnerable populations, respecting local cultures and local ecosystems, and ensuring food security.
In general, technologies generated by family farmers are better suited to the local socio-economic and ecological conditions, and therefore are appropriate for sustainable development. Farmers’ participation in research and development allows the development of locally adapted solutions with lower investments and reduced environmental cost. Thus, family farming, inspired by research and development, can help agriculture to contribute to the needs of planet Earth, reducing hunger, addressing climate change, and keeping the world’s land productive. In short: family farming is the key to the world’s sustainability.”
Text: Fabio Kessler Dal Soglio
Fabio Kessler Dal Soglio can be reached at fabiods[at]ufrgs.br
|