Expert consultation on methodology for an information system on rural livelihoods and Sustainable Development Goals indicators on smallholder productivity and income 7 - 8 December, FAO headquarters

1. Agricultural participation,
farm typologies and
sustainable rural livelihood
framework
CIRAD’s contribution

2. SDG 2016: What should be the role of agriculture in this context?
 Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
 Goal 1: Eradicate extreme and reduce by half poverty
 Goal 1.3: Social protection
 Goal 1.4: Access to basic services
 Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote
sustainable agriculture
 Goal 2.1 & 2.2: Food access and nutritional outcomes (undernourishment, food insecurity,
stunting and malnutrition)
 Goal 2.3: Small holders labor productivity and production, resilient agriculture practises
 Goal 2.5 Genetic diversity (cultivated plants, domesticated animals and associated wild)
 Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
 Goal 5a: Women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and
control over land, financial services, inheritance and natural resources
 In the current context agriculture is at the core of a polarized debate we can
present through two main narratives

3. Narrative of market oriented agricultural systems
 Agriculture is an economic activity as any other economic activity
 Markets are the key driver and the agricultural sector will transform accordingly through
dedicated policies enhancing its productivity
 The consequence is a normative development pathway:
 an strong increase in labor productivity and a sharp decrease in the labour force in agriculture
 a shift towards specialised farming systems and production structures’ concentration
 more and more integrated and international markets of inputs (including services) and products
 the fading of the family nature of the farm, replaced by a diversity of arrangements
 The development of combination of investments (capital) and hired labour

4. Narrative of resilient agro-food systems
 Agriculture is a mode of living (“mode de vie”, Mauss)
 Farming systems are diversified
 Production is not a mere commodity sold in an undefined market:
 self-consumption,
 interpersonal exchanges and social capital
 ecological services
 Agriculture is most often combined with off-farm and non-farm activities and migrations
 The consequences for agriculture contribution to SDGs
 A sharp attention to labour and decent jobs creation in a wide diversity of farms models
 A need for opening the vision to entire food systems
 A need for cross-cutting analysis and policies

5. Challenge: combining narratives & visions
 Globally, the situation is a strong process of market integration
 But for most agricultural sectors, market integration works poorly
 But in most of developing countries (in SSA and South Asia), the demographic and employment
challenge requires others options
 But even in developed and industrialized countries, the unsustainability of concentrated
agricultures and food systems requires to rethink alternative models
 Everywhere, reshaping sustainable ways of farming is high on the agenda
 The shift will require:
 a new approach to agricultural labour
 a deep rethinking of the processing side
 more attention to decentralized agri-food businesses

6. Experience only illuminates the past pathways
 Modernization needs a deep rethinking to avoid dead-ends

7. Agricultural activity vs agriculture as a profession
 In many situations / countries (even in developed countries):
 pluriactivity is the norm and not an exception
 Pluriactivity exists at individual and household level
 As a consequence:
 The issue of threshold is not so important when considering agriculture as an activity
 Threshold are not relevant when tackling globally food and nutrition security
 Considering agriculture as an activity is in line with SDG n°2, 1.3 and 5A
 If agriculture has a role to play in meeting SDG, all kind of agricultural activity has
to be part of the picture, either in rural, peri-urban or urban settings
 30% incomes to define a farmer make sense for designing market oriented
agriculture policies… not for measuring agriculture activity contribution to SDGs

8. Farms typologies: the type of labor as a key discriminating factor
Corporate forms Family business forms Family forms

9. The rationale for choosing labour
 To be able to count family farms and others
 Analytical definition which leaves the political and policy choice to the policy makers:
we just argue that it is important to count for an accurate weighing of the different
categories
 Labour is the main « engine » of farming at world level: it deserves more attention in the
official data sets (2/3 of farms in a world remain manual, less than 3% are motorized)
 Labour is especially important to understand family farms functionnings
 Social protection issues and policy linkages
 Human capital as an investment

10. Exploring family farms diversity with alternative criteria

11. Exploring family farms diversity with alternative criteria
 A need for local/national typologies, but with relevant and mesurable criteria
 A need for indicators and criteria allowing scalling-up to regional and international level

12. The SRL framework
 Compatible with family farms understanding
 Useful because it allows considering agriculture and non- agricultural activities
 It includes the « organisational and institutional dimension »: that can influence
the capabilities of each individual member of the HH and of the HH as a whole
 It clearly separates « assets » and outcomes
 Regarding RuLIS proposal, the categories can be expanded to include
collective or public goods / services available in the environment
 A suggestion is to revisit the original SRL framework…

13. The SRL
framework