Restoring the Soil - Canadian Foodgrains Bank

16Existing Green Manure/Cover Cropping Systems Around The WorldThis is particularly true in drought-prone areas, where the risk of crop failure is high.As a result, farmers in many parts of the developing world (except where chemicalfertilizer is being subsidized) are already buying less and less chemical fertilizer or noneat all.But let’s suppose that chemical fertilizer still could be used profitably. Most smallholderfarmers in the world now possess less than a hectare of land per family. Even alight application of chemical fertilizer on that hectare of land will cost about US$200.It is virtually impossible for a smallholder farmer to feed his or her family on what isleft from the harvest of a hectare of basic grains, even when fertilized, if he or she hasto sell enough of those grains to pay for the fertilizer. By contrast, gm/ccs, which canimprove the soil’s fertility just as well or better than chemical fertilizers, cost a fractionof what chemical fertilizers cost (or can be a free by-product of the productionof high-protein grain legumes). Therefore, farmers can feed their families with highquality food on much smaller pieces of land. This is imperative if most of the world’ssmallholder farmers are to achieve anything approaching food security.While it is true that highly efficient gm/cc systems do not exist for absolutely everyfarming situation, this manual shows that systems do exist for the vast majority ofsmallholder farmers around the world.