From big to small: the significance of smallholder farms in the global food system

摘要

When many of us contemplate the role of agriculture in feeding 7·2 billion people, we picture large-scale, industrialised, and efficient systems that produce lots of food that is shipped around the world. Although those systems are relevant, they are only one dimension of what agriculture consists of, who feeds us, and where those farmers reside. Of the 570 million farms worldwide, 83% of which are in sub-Saharan Africa (9%) and Asia (74%), 475 million are smallholder farms (<2 hectares).1 These smallholder farms operate about 12% of the world's agricultural land.1 They produce some of the major commodities consumed in the world and provide more than 70% of the food calories to people living in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa;2 yet many of these farmers are poor and somewhat neglected. These farmers lack the necessary capital for rural development and transformation, including natural, built, human, social, political, and financial capital.3.