Very interesting debate! What Africa needs are Smart Farmers. I am a Farmer my self and would like to share my experience as a small farmer but with potential to grow. Smart small farmers will produce healthy food for their household needs on small pieces of land so that they are able to afford all the food requirements especially for fruits, vegetables and small animal protein as well as get some small cash income. This I have achieved on less than half an acre of land in my town home just outside Kampala city. Land productivity is maintained by manure from my small poutry unit and piggerly. With this approach I only need to increase my level of investment to make enough money - over and above what I earn from my full time Job in order to resign and concentrate on producing food for my family and for the nation! I have a number of colleagues that are farming at such scales. From this experience and using savings from our full time Jobs, a number have acquired land in the vicinity of the city in the range of 1-5 acres. This is where medium/or large scale production and farming as a bussiness is happening and most of the egg and chicken supply for Uganda is coming from. Some is infact exported to Southern Sudan and DRC! A number of people have resigned thier full time Jobs or retired into this kind of farming. So the issue is not the size but the vision of the farmer, our perception about farming and availability of affordable financing. One may urgue that this model is not for an ordinary African in the village; but with more people getting exposed to education, the trend should be that instead of spending all my working like earning enough money for food, housing, transport and if possible my childrens education, one would rather invest in intensive/market oriented agriculture on a 1 acre piece of land. Therefore the future of food production/security in Africa lies in the hands of educated, committed farmers who see farming first as a Job, a bussiness and then an investment and not large scale farms. Besides, in some countries the large scale farms may not be attainable due to the land ownership arrangements.
Very interesting debate! What Africa needs are Smart Farmers. I am a Farmer my self and would like to share my experience as a small farmer but with potential to grow. Smart small farmers will produce healthy food for their household needs on small pieces of land so that they are able to afford all the food requirements especially for fruits, vegetables and small animal protein as well as get some small cash income. This I have achieved on less than half an acre of land in my town home just outside Kampala city. Land productivity is maintained by manure from my small poutry unit and piggerly. With this approach I only need to increase my level of investment to make enough money - over and above what I earn from my full time Job in order to resign and concentrate on producing food for my family and for the nation! I have a number of colleagues that are farming at such scales. From this experience and using savings from our full time Jobs, a number have acquired land in the vicinity of the city in the range of 1-5 acres. This is where medium/or large scale production and farming as a bussiness is happening and most of the egg and chicken supply for Uganda is coming from. Some is infact exported to Southern Sudan and DRC! A number of people have resigned thier full time Jobs or retired into this kind of farming. So the issue is not the size but the vision of the farmer, our perception about farming and availability of affordable financing. One may urgue that this model is not for an ordinary African in the village; but with more people getting exposed to education, the trend should be that instead of spending all my working like earning enough money for food, housing, transport and if possible my childrens education, one would rather invest in intensive/market oriented agriculture on a 1 acre piece of land. Therefore the future of food production/security in Africa lies in the hands of educated, committed farmers who see farming first as a Job, a bussiness and then an investment and not large scale farms. Besides, in some countries the large scale farms may not be attainable due to the land ownership arrangements.