Case Study: Smallholder Farming

This chapter focuses on smallholder farming. More than 90 percent of farms are smallholder farms. They produce approximately 80 percent of the total food and cover 70 to 80 percent of the total land even though they are less than one hectare in size. These are often considered subsistence farms, or self-sufficient farms, but often must perform activities beyond agriculture to complement the productivity of the farm. A case study from Mali is used to discuss the classification of smallholder famers by staple crops, cash crops, livestock, and among different steps of wealth, all except the poorest farmers are able to class up, widening the gap between the wealthiest and poorest farmers. Ken Giller note that cooperative action boosts productivity. Among the trend mentioned: Urbanization is continuing throughout the world and population growth is enormous, creating new markets for farmers as well as an increased demand for food. The big data approach converts all of the income to food so that we can see that many farmers are actually food insecure. The average age of farmers globally is increasing.

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