Living Land

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Sustainable smallholder agriculture,

food security, agricultural policy and

the role of smallholder farmers

Umar I. Kamarah, Islamic Development Bank Group

ncreasing prices for agricultural commodities offer a

historic opportunity to intensify production systems for

small-scale farmers in many developing countries. But

without agricultural policies supporting them in making use

of this opportunity, many of them would lose their access

to land and income, resulting in aggravated food insecurity.

Hence, an agricultural policy guided by the objectives of

food security, poverty reduction and sustainability, taking

into account the dynamics of rural growth, must ensure:

increased supply of agricultural products (including, but

not exclusively, food) based on intensification; broad-based

income/livelihood opportunities for the rural population;

environmentally friendly, sustainable land use.

There is some debate over what a ‘development and food

security oriented’ agricultural policy actually means. Should

it focus on the potentials of existing smallholder farms, or on

the efficiency of commercial scale large-scale farms? Should it

embark on high external input technology based on chemicals

and fuel, or give preference to sustainable land use practices?

Should it go for a ‘food first’ policy, or should all agricultural

commodities receive the same attention? Should smallholder

farmers be promoted by public or private services? Moreover,

there is disagreement on the appropriate approaches of

promotion: are smallholder farmers helped most effectively

by a farming/livelihood systems approach or a value-chain

approach? And there is debate about who is responsible for

ensuring sustainable and climate-smart land use practices and

adaptation of farmers to climate change. However, the over-

arching question is whether there are general global answers

to these questions or whether the answers depend on the

specific local context. The answers to these questions must

be guided by the policy objectives above.

Although some of the dynamics are of global nature and demand

global answers, specific local conditions have to be considered to

find appropriate policy responses.

Consequently, there cannot

be any general rule on whether small or large farms, low or high

external input solutions, or private business, civil society or the

government will do better. Rather than embarking on dogmatic

debates onwhat is preferable in general, the first rule for designing

agricultural policies is to follow the principle of context specific-

ity. This principle has far-reaching implications for the process of

policy design. Policies need to be drafted on the basis of local-level

analysis and experience and with the participation of people with

local knowledge. Such a process has to be adequately resourced.

Smallholder farmers (SFs), given the opportunity, can inten-

sify their production methods and thus increase productivity

considerably. Especially in low-wage countries, SFs dispose of

Image: IDB

Watershed management and environmentally-sound water-harvesting help to

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iving

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