smallholder farmers

This report (PDF) by Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) highlights the role of small-scale farmers as innovators and custodians of food system diversity, a critical resource in ensuring the realization of the right to food in an era of climate change. Taking an innovation systems perspective, it proposes a new framework for the design of collaborative agricultural research projects and agendas, and notes the need for pro-active policy measures in creating an enabling environment for such partnerships. »

This blog elaborates on some examples in which genetic improvements for seeds and livestock varieties provided benefits to smallholders. Genetic intensification incorporates conventional breeding and the use of biotechnology to cultivate crops and livestock breeds that satisfy a number of needs and can overcome challenges, such as climate change. Although many of these technologies remain controversial, they seem to be gaining wider acceptance in some places. »

This discussion paper (PDF) by CGIAR, explores the dairy innovation system of Bihar mainly to explore the critical bottlenecks in the policy environment that constrain smallholder dairying in the state. »

This publication (PDF) by FAO discusses rural women’s time poverty in agriculture, elaborates on its possible causes and implications and provides insight into the various types of constraints that affect the adoption of solutions for reducing work burden. »

This paper in the Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin is the outcome of a study on the international partner project “Changing Gender Roles in Sub-Saharan Horticultural Family Farming” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. A qualitative case study was carried out to understand the impacts on gender inequality of the integration of horticultural smallholdings into the fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) supply chain to the European market. »

Integrating Africa’s smallholder farmers into global markets is seen as an effective way to create better jobs and reduce poverty. But what about the complex policy-context in which this potential is to be realized? »