i agree that both small and large farms are needed, in different context and environment, one or the other can give better performance, contribute to food security and create more jobs. I'm a bit surprise though that there has been no comment about the fact that this article suggests that the only thing small-holder farmers in Africa miss are subsidies for fertilizers. Obviously the whole issue is more complex, and is related to access to food, infrastructures, market, education, water etc. But also fertilizers are not the solution. Exactly because they are not available and, as somebody mentioned can bring to pollution and eutrophication, use of fertilizers should be minimized and other methodologies (conservation Agr., Organic Agr., Agroforestry etc) should be adopted to make the production sustainable in the time to come. Low external input agriculture (LEIA) should be definitely adopted in SSA more then High External Input Agriculture (HEIA).
And one last comment, to "Water Land Ecosystems": policies to encourage urban migration!? Urban migration and abandonment of the countryside is one of the problem of the present that will increase in the future. Many of the people that migrates from the countryside to cities in SSA will become part of these enormous number of people populating slums, with little access to what the city offers to the wealthy inhabitants. And there will be increasingly more people living far from where the food is produced. In the meanwhile the land get abandoned and jobs are lost. All this is results of the lack of policies that encourage people to stay in the countryside and have a respectable and fair job, producing food for his family and for the community, instead of migrating to town, to leave in a slum and become beggars or unemployed workers.
i agree that both small and large farms are needed, in different context and environment, one or the other can give better performance, contribute to food security and create more jobs. I'm a bit surprise though that there has been no comment about the fact that this article suggests that the only thing small-holder farmers in Africa miss are subsidies for fertilizers. Obviously the whole issue is more complex, and is related to access to food, infrastructures, market, education, water etc. But also fertilizers are not the solution. Exactly because they are not available and, as somebody mentioned can bring to pollution and eutrophication, use of fertilizers should be minimized and other methodologies (conservation Agr., Organic Agr., Agroforestry etc) should be adopted to make the production sustainable in the time to come. Low external input agriculture (LEIA) should be definitely adopted in SSA more then High External Input Agriculture (HEIA).
And one last comment, to "Water Land Ecosystems": policies to encourage urban migration!? Urban migration and abandonment of the countryside is one of the problem of the present that will increase in the future. Many of the people that migrates from the countryside to cities in SSA will become part of these enormous number of people populating slums, with little access to what the city offers to the wealthy inhabitants. And there will be increasingly more people living far from where the food is produced. In the meanwhile the land get abandoned and jobs are lost. All this is results of the lack of policies that encourage people to stay in the countryside and have a respectable and fair job, producing food for his family and for the community, instead of migrating to town, to leave in a slum and become beggars or unemployed workers.