http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership/en/ This presentation was presentaed during the seminar Soils & Pulses: symbiosis for life that took place at FAO HQ on 19 Apr 2016. it was made by Wafaa El Khoury and it presents The contribution of smallholder farmers to the Agenda 2030.

1. The contribution of smallholder
farmers to the Agenda 2030
Wafaa El Khoury
Lead Technical Specialist, Policy and Technical Advisory Division,
IFAD
Soils and pulses: symbiosis for life - A contribution to the 2030 Agenda
19 April 2016 – Rome, FAO

2. The contribution of smallholder farmers
to the Agenda 2030
• Smallholder farmers
(SHF) are core for the
2030 agenda
• They are at the centre of
several SDGs but mostly
SDG1, SDG2 and SDG15

3. The contribution of smallholder farmers to the
Agenda 2030
• Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
• Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved
nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
• Goal 15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of
terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat
desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and
halt biodiversity loss
Smallholder farmers are the main link between these SDGs

4. Proportion of national food production
from smallholder farms• About 90 % of the world’s
570 million farms are small
• Produce food for a
substantial proportion of
the world’s population – in
developing countries,
producing 60 and 80 % of
the total food consumed
• Smallholders produce food
in order to consume most of
it: they are the people
requiring food and
nutritional security
Why targeting SHF would make a difference?

5. Poverty headcount ratio at
national poverty line
• Most of the world’s poor live in
rural areas – rural poverty is
acute in sub-Saharan Africa and
South Asia.
• Poverty among rural small farmers
is higher than the national average
• Studies show a strong positive
relationship between growth in
agriculture and poverty reduction
• 1 % increase in agricultural per
capita GDP reduces poverty gap
five times more than a 1 %
increase in GDP per capita in
other sectors, especially among
the poorest people
Why targeting SHF would make a difference?

6. • SHF include ca 350 million indigenous peoples
• Custodians of biodiversity, conserving many different crop
varieties and livestock breeds
• Custodians of indigenous knowledge – through agricultural
practices and techniques
• Productivity contributes to growth by:
– Reducing the price of staple food
– increasing the demand for labour in rural areas
Why targeting SHF would make a difference?

7. Diversification in smallholder farms
• SHF produce a wide range of foods while maintaining
their main staple
• With constrained choices and limited assets, they
diversity their farming systems and take on multiple
economic activities (farm and non-farm activities and
employment), to enhance their income and reduce their
risk from external shocks (climatic and market)
• Diversified production enhances diets, soil fertility and
efficiency in farming activities and spreads the risks
over several crop and livestock products in case of
climatic and biotic shocks (droughts, floods, pests,
diseases), and adverse market prices

8. Importance of pulses in the diversification
and livelihoods of smallholder farming systems
• In crop rotations for soil quality enhancement:
– most of them in rotation with cereals or intercropped with
tuber crops and fruit trees
• As major food sources (dry or green):
– chickpeas, lentils, beans, peas, faba beans, soybean, pigeon peas,
etc
• As animal feed source – seeds or hay:
– soybeans, pigeon peas, vetches, etc
• As source of income sold at the market as grain or
extracted as oil
– dry beans, peas, chickpeas, groundnuts, soybeans, etc
• Legume trees and shrubs (alley cropping, hedges,
intercropping)
– Faidherbia albida (fertilizer tree), leguminous fodder shrubs,
etc.

9. Small farms: positive environmental potential
• Local adapted varieties and landraces, maintaining
genetic diversity. Seed usually self-produced and saved
• Optimal use of internal farm resources: crop residues
as animal feed, manure as fertilizers, straw as storage
and building facilities, local crops as income generating
sources, etc
• External inputs are minimized: limited use of inorganic
fertilizers and pesticides (except where government
policies are supportive) and heavy machinery
• Most small farms are rainfed, especially in Africa and
Latin America, thus limiting the demand on the global
water resources

10. Production efficiency in small farms
• Studies show that within their
countries smallholder farmers achieve
higher yields than their larger
counterparts.
• Studies report evidence almost
universally of an inverse relationship
between farm size and productivity
• “Technical efficiency” studies reach
the same conclusion: smallholders are
indeed more efficient and produce
amounts closer to the maximum
output, as compared to larger holders.
Inverse relationship
between farm size and yield

11. • At least 1/3 of rural populations
live in less-favoured marginal areas,
hillside or mountainous regions, or
arid and semi-arid drylands
• Most agricultural lands are fragile:
soils, vegetation and landscapes
easily eroded: estimated 5-10
million ha of agricultural land
annually lost to severe degradation
• Mostly rainfed cultivation
increasing their vulnerability
especially with climate change
effects
Present fragility of the smallholder farmers

12. • High yield gaps: In 2005, yield
gaps were estimated between
11% in East Asia to 76% in Sub-
Saharan Africa
• Weak extension systems: weak
technology adoption, knowledge,
productivity growth and
innovation
• Low literacy and numeracy: low
farm productivity, technology
adoption and productivity
• Intensive use of family farm
labour: use more labour than
capital to produce food
Present fragility of the smallholder farmers

13. • Unable to participate in the markets due to
high underlying transaction costs (transport
costs, geographical dispersion, small and
inconsistent supply, private traders not
interested or require high margins,…)
• Often dispersed farms with limited
accessibility to resources, information,
technology, capital and assets
Present fragility of the smallholder farmers

14. Future challenges facing SHF
• Population growth: projected at 9.3 billion in 2050.
– Global production in 2050 should be 60% higher than that of
2005/07.
– ca 70% from yield increase: - has been stagnant for the main
staples
• Climate change: risks and insecurities
• Land tenure and socio-political changes: urbanization,
pastoralists and transhumance movement, community
structure, national boundaries (water scarcity, degraded
rangelands, conflict with sedentary farmers, etc)

15. Future challenges facing SHF
• Land fragmentation – reduced farm size and
economies of scale. Diminishing the comparative
advantage in efficiency of small farms
• Changing market system and sophistication in
standards, regulations and delivery systems
(urbanization and globalization resulting in changes
in food processing and agrifood industries,
procurement systems, etc)

16. Risks of no action
• SHF forced to expansion into more marginal areas or forests,
with the risk of overusing the fragile resource base – entering
the vicious circle of reduced productivity
• Productivity advantage of smallholders is being eroded: due to
Prediction that smallholder productivity will increase at a rate
slower than that of larger farmers due to transformation of
the global food supply chains that favor large farmers and due
to declining farm size.
• Resulting risk: SHF become marginalized and even more
isolated from the economic environment, instead being part of
the solution and driving the growth process.
• SHF become unviable economic units; more poverty and
unemployment

17. • Extension and advisory services
• Support to the establishment and
capacity development of farmer
organizations
• Investment in adaptive research
for the development of:
– adapted and high yielding crop varieties
– good agricultural practices enhancing
productivity, livelihood and resilience to
climate change and market shocks
Interventions in support to the future of SHF

18. Interventions in support to the future of SHF
• Support to the development of adapted rural finance
products as well as weather and crop insurance products
• Investment in rural infrastructure- irrigation schemes,
soil and water management structures, rural roads, rural
markets and market infrastructure
• Proper policy incentives: supporting productivity
enhancement, environmentally friendly and sustainable,
without affecting the further land fragmentation

19. Conclusions
• SHF function in diverse agro-climatic systems; economies
of their farms depend on their assets, skills and
interaction with their local environment
• Future of SHF is difficult to determine but can be
greatly affected by the government and global policies
• Structural transformations are needed- they are linked
to land size and labour productivity that affect the small
farm as a viable economic unit
• Changes in SHF directly affect rural poverty, hence
poverty in general with major influence on social stability
and direct impact on environment and the fragile natural
resource base

20. that they may have a future without poverty

21. Thank you