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The family farm in Europe and Central Asia
About the author
Jan Douwe van der Ploeg is Professor of Transition Studies at Wageningen University, the
Netherlands and adjunct Professor of Rural Sociology at China Agricultural University in
Beijing. He recently co-authored ‘Investing in smallholder agriculture for food security’ for
the High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security.
Notes
1. The squeeze on agriculture results in low to very low incomes, threatening its
viability and reducing the possibilities for an agricultural rejuvenation.
Family farming in sub-Saharan Africa
1. FAO, 2013. Towards successful family farming in Africa. Position paper from
Capetown Dialogue
FAO 2014, State of food and agriculture in the African region and CAADP
implementation with specific focus on smallholder farmers and family farming. FAO
regional conference for Africa, Tunis, 24-28 March 2014
2. Mamdani, M. 1996. Citizens and Subjects: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late
colonialism, Princetown University Press. UK
Moyo, S. 2008. African land questions, agrarian transitions and the state:
contradictions of neo-liberal land reforms. Dakar: CODESRIA
Moyo, Sam, Paris Yeros and Praveen Jha. 2012. ‘Imperialism and Primitive
Accumulation: Notes on the New Scramble for Africa’. Agrarian South: Journal of
Political Economy 1(2), 181-203
3. Amin, S. 1974 Accumulation on a world scale: a critique of the theory of
underdevelopment. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974
4. Ibid.
5. Mafeje, Archie. 2003. ‘The Agrarian Question, Access to Land and Peasant
Responses in Sub-Saharan Africa’. Civil Society and Social Movements Programme
Paper 6. UNRISD. Available at
ab82a6805797760f80256b 4f005da1ab/a2b577c61b19f92ec1256d56002b5291/
$FILE/mafeje2.pdf (last accessed 1 December 2012)
6. Moyo, S. 2008 op. cit.
7. FAO, IWG-family farm, 2014
8. DFID, 2014
9. Toulmi and Gueye 2013
10. FAO 2013, op. cit.
11. Moyo, S. 2010. ‘The agrarian question and the developmental state in Southern
Africa’. In: O. Edigheji, ed. Constructing a democratic developmental state in South
Africa: potential and challenges. Cape Town: HSRC Press, pp. 285–314
Moyo, 2013
Sitco and Jayne, 2012
12. Mafeje, A. 1999. Imperatives and Options for Agricultural Development in Africa:
Peasant or Capitalist Revolution? (unpublished essay)
13. IAAS, 2009
14. FAO, 2014 op. cit.
15. Moyo, S., and P, Yeros. 2005. ‘The resurgence of rural movements under
neoliberalism’. In Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros (Eds), Reclaiming the land: the
resurgence of rural movements in Africa, Asia and Latin America. (pp. 8–64). London
and Cape Town: Zed Books and David Philip
16. FAO, 2014, op. cit.
17. Moyo, Yeros and Jha, 2012 op. cit.
18. Mafeje, 2003 op. cit.
Mkandawire, T. and Soludo, C. 1999. Our Continent, Our Future. New Jersey:
Africa World
19. Moyo, 2010 op. cit.
Further reading
Mortimore, M, 2003. The Future of Family Farms in West Africa: What can we learn from
long-term data? Issue Paper 119, IIED
Family farming in the Near East and North Africa
1. Kadri 2014, 24
El Nour, Saker, (2012) ‘National geographical targeting of poverty in Upper Egypt’ in
Ray Bush and Habib Ayeb eds., Marginality and Exclusion in Egypt, London, Zed Books
Lowder, Sarah, K. Jakob Skoet and Saumya Singh (2014) ‘What do we really
know about the number and distribution of farms and family farms in the world?’
Background paper for The State of Food and Agriculture 2014, ESA Working Paper
No. 14-02, April available at
2. FAO (2013) International Year of Family Farming 2014 Master Plan (final version),
30 May available at
Plan_IYFF_2014_30-05.pdf (accessed 12 August 2014), p.5-6
3. Lowder et al 2014, op. cit. p.1
4. FAO (2013) op. cit., p.23
5. Ibid. p.3
6. Breisinger et al, 2012
7. Bush, Ray (2014) ‘Food Security and Food Sovereignty in Egypt’ in Zahra Babar
and Suzi Mirgani eds., Food Security in the Middle East, London, Hurst
Achcar, Gilbert (2013)The People Want, Berkeley, University of California Press
Abdelrahman, Maha (2014) Egypt’s Permanent Revolution: On Protest Movements
and Uprisings, London, Routledge,
8. Transnational Institute (2012) The Global Land Grab. A Primer,
Land Matrix (2012) The Land Matrix, Beta version: the Online public database on
land deals available at
9. Borras, Jun and Franco (2012) A Land Sovereignty Alternative? Towards a peoples’
counter-enclosure, available from
McMichael, Philip (2013) Food Regimes and Agrarian Questions, Halifax and
Winnipeg, Fernwood Publishing
Lippman, Thomas, W. (2010) ‘Saudi Arabia’s Quest for Food Security’ in Middle
East Policy Council Spring, vol XVII, number 1
10. The Middle East, (2013) ‘Economic Update, Saudi Arabia: Overseas investments to
boost food security’, 9 May available from
Lippman, Thomas, W. (2010) op. cit.
11. Ali 2014:118
12. Woertz 2013:135
13. FAO (2009) The humanitarian situation in Gaza and FAO’s response, 23 January,
Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division
14. FAO (2013) op. cit. p.4
15. Marcus et al (2013)
16. World Bank (2014) Instability and Fragmentation Continues to Constrain Private
Sector Growth in Palestinian Territories, 11 September, Jerusalem Press Release
17. World Bank, 2008; 2012
18. El-Ghonemy, M.R. (1993) ‘Food security and Rural Development in North Africa’,
Middle Eastern Studies 29, 3, July, pp445-66
El-Ghonemy, M.R. (1999) ‘Recent Changes in Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development Strategies in the Near East’ Land Reform, vols 1-2 pp9-2
19. ADA 2014, Le Fondements de la Strategie Plan Maroc Vert [online] Available at:
Akesbi, Najib (2011), ‘Le Plan Maroc Vert: une analyse critique’. In: AA. VV., Questions
d’économie marocaine, Rabat: Presses universitaires du Maroc, Rabat, pp. 2011, p.171
20. Ibid. p.28
21. Bessaoud (2004)
22. Allen (2001)
Sowers, Jeannie (2014) ‘Water, Energy and Human Insecurity in the Middle East’
in Middle East Research and Information Project, 271, Summer available at www.
(accessed 1
August 2014), p.1
23. Nakhooda et al (2013) p.1
24. Sowers J., A. Vengosh and E. Weinthal (2011), ‘Climate change, water resources
and the politics of adaption in the Middle East and North Africa’, Climatic Change,
104 (3-4), 599-627
Chenoweth, J. et al. (2011), ‘Impact of climate change on the water resources of
the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region: Modeled 21st century changes
and implications’, Water Resource Research, 47 (6)
Droogers, P., Immerzeel, W. W., Terink, W., Hoogeveen, J., Bierkens, M. F. P., van
Beek, L. P. H., and Debele, B. (2012), ‘Water resources trends in Middle East and
North Africa towards 2050’, Hydrology and Earth System Science, 16, 3101-3114
25. FAO (2013) op. cit. p.60-61
26. Sowers (2014) p.2
27. World Bank (2010) Development and Climate Change, World Bank, Washington DC
Sowers et al (2010)
Shetty (2006)
28. Waterbury, John (2013) The Political Economy of Climate Change in the Arab
Region, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Arab
States, Arab Human Development Report, Research Paper Series, p.8
29. FAO, (2014) ‘What do we really know about the number and distribution of
farms and family farms in the world?’, Background paper for The State of Food and
Agriculture 2014 , ESA Working Paper No. 14-02, April
Further reading
- Akesbi, Najib (2014) ‘Which agricultural policy for which food security in Morocco?’ in
Jörg Gertel and Sarah Ruth Sippel eds., Seasonal Workers in Mediterranean Agriculture: The
social costs of eating fresh. Earthscan and Routledge, London and New York
- Ayeb, Habib (2012) ‘The Marginalisation of the small peasantry: Egypt and Tunisia’ in
Ray Bush and Habib Ayeb eds., Marginality and Exclusion in Egypt, Zed Books, London
- Ayeb, Habib and Ray Bush (2014) ‘Forgotten Farmers? Small Farmers and rural neglect
in Egypt and Tunisia’ in Middle East Research and Information Project, 272 Autumn
Notes and References