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correlated with increased use of non-renewable resource
inputs, and have often entailed significant environmental
costs due to their overuse (Figure 3). Industrial agriculture
consumes on average 10 exosomatic energy calories
(derived from fossil-fuel energy resources) for every
food endosomatic energy calorie (derived from human
metabolism of food) that is produced and delivered to the
consumer (Giampietro and Pimentel 1994). This energyintensity,
in many cases, is encouraged by subsidizing
inorganic fertilizer, fuel and electric power used on
farms. In addition, bio-diversity losses have resulted from
production subsidies targeted at a limited number of
crops. Industrial agriculture has also resulted in shrinking
the agricultural labour force even as farm outputs have
dramatically increased, a trend intensified to some extent
by subsidies for farm mechanization. (Lyson 2005, Dimitri
et al. 2005, Knudsen et al. 2005, ILO 2008).
1.3 Traditional/small farm/
subsistence agriculture
Traditional (subsistence) smallholder agriculture is
typically low-productivity farming practiced on small
plots, with low value added per worker and primarily
reliant on extracting soil nutrients with insufficient
replenishment by either organic or inorganic fertilizers.
It is susceptible to yield losses due to erratic rainfall, pest
and weed infestations and other production-related
risks caused by poor management.
Traditional agriculture has limited scope for farm
mechanization and external agri-chemical inputs.
Many smallholders’ plots, typically located in LICs and
in some LMICs, are too small to realize the economies
of scale required for most commercial farm machinery.
In addition, the high cost of purchased inputs such as
chemical fertilizers generally require that at least some
portion of the crops produced must be sold to recover
costs. Failure to modernize land tenure systems, which
can facilitate distribution, consolidation, and the use of
land as security for bank loans are important barriers to
the commercialization of small-scale agriculture in many
LICs. Commercialization is further limited by inadequate
road transportation linking food-producing areas to
large urban centers. For these reasons, value added per
worker in LICs is far below that of HICs. Whereas the
average value added per agricultural worker in OECD
countries in 2003 was US$23,081 (which grew at 4.4
per cent per year between 1992 and 2003, in Africa, the
figures were only US$327 and 1.4 per cent, respectively
(IAASTD 2009b).
Worldwide, there are 525 million small farms, 404 million
of which operate on less than two hectares of land
(Nagayets 2005). These farmers account for a sizable share
of global agricultural production (70 per cent) and in many
Box 1: Agriculture at a
crossroads
The key message of the Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science and Technology for
Development, published in 2009 is: “The way the
world grows its food will have to change radically
to better serve the poor and hungry if the world
is to cope with a growing population and climate
change while avoiding social breakdown and
environmental collapse.” The Assessment calls for
a fundamental shift in agricultural knowledge,
science and technology (AKST) to successfully
meet development and sustainability objectives.
Such a shift should emphasize the importance
of the multi-functionality of agriculture,
accounting for the complexity of agricultural
systems within diverse social and ecological
contexts and recognizing farming communities,
farm households, and farmers as producers and
managers of ecosystems. Innovative institutional
and organizational arrangements to promote
an integrated approach to the development
and deployment of AKST are required as
well. Incentives along the value chain should
internalize as many negative externalities as
possible, to account for the full cost of agricultural
production to society. Policy and institutional
changes should focus on those least served in the
current AKST approaches, including resourcepoor
farmers, women and ethnic minorities. It
emphasizes that small-scale farms across diverse
ecosystems need realistic opportunities to
increase productivity and access markets.
Figure 4: Regional distribution of small farms
Source: Nagayets (2005)
Agriculture
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