1. Conference on
New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture
GORDON CONWAY,
Imperial College, London
On Being a Smallholder
Jan 24 2011

2. North Borneo (Sabah)

3. Smallholders ‐ under 2 ha
400 – 500 million
smallholders
2 billion people
33 million in Africa
80% of farms in Africa

4. 3 Facts
• the size of land holdings is falling, with the
fastest decline in Africa.
• land and water are deteriorating and becoming
scarce
• smallholdings remain of primary importance not
only to agriculture but to rural development

5. The Virtuous Circle
• As agriculture develops – greater yields and production of
subsistence and cash crops – smallholders become more
prosperous. The landless also benefit through wage labour.
Chronic hunger decreases.
• The rural economy also grows – through the creation of
small rural businesses ‐ providing more employment and
improved rural facilities, especially schools and health
clinics. Roads and markets develop. The rural economy
connects to the urban economy and to the growing
industrial sector.
• Free trade provides opportunities for greater imports and
exports. High value agricultural exports accelerate
agricultural development, further intensifying the virtuous
circle.

6. A Javanese Home Garden

7. Labour Productivity in Agriculture
US $ per worker

8. brazilrealestate.catenaecastro.com.br

9. Mrs.
Namarunda
A single mother
farming a
hillside in
western Kenya

10. An Insecure Farm
3
Weeds
Pests
2
Drought
Survival line
1
1 2 3 4
Months

11. Appropriate Technologies
• They are productive; in particular they
generate high levels of income
• The production they generate is stable and
resilient
• They are readily accessible and affordable.
• They do not have significant environmental
or human health downsides

12. Traditional
Technologies

13. Breeding and growing Land races
International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture

14. Treadle pump and drip irrigation

15. Rasike Farm, Chililila WG. MBILI maize-soyabean
intercrop providing 1215 kg maize and 545 kg
soyabean per ha when conventional intercrops
failed. These results indicate that MBILI is a
means toward greater food security.
Wamalwa Farm, Siritanyi FFS, Kanduyi.
Maize-groundnut intercrop providing 5330
kg maize and 1203 kg groundnut per ha.
These results indicate that MBILI can
produce significant food surpluses.

16. sing in
Niger
Microdosing in Niger

17. Controlling Striga
• 2.4 m ha
• $380m loss
• Maize resistant to
Imazapyr
• Coat seed, herbicide
kills Striga
• BASF, Weismann.
CIMMYT, IITA, NARS,
NGOs

18. New Platform Technologies
Nanotechnologies
Information and Communication
Technologies
Global Information Systems
Biotechnologies

20. BT Cotton in Burkina Faso
ISAA.org

21. A Secure Farm
3 Weeds
Insects &
diseases
Soil
Drough
Fertility t
2 >2 t/ha
Resilient Crops
Actual harvest
Survival line
1
1 2 3 4
Months

22. New Seeds

24. Agrodealers

25. Incentives for Adoption
• Land Reform
• Output Markets
• Insurance

26. Land Reform in Rwanda
http://www.livelihoodsrc.dfid.gov.uk/uploads/File/Ebulletins/Issue%203%20December%202007.pdf

27. Cereal Bank in Western Kenya

28. Temperature
and rainfall
projections,
1980 to 1999
versus 2080 to
2099
scenario A1B

29. The Atlas
Mountains

30. Argan Oil
and
Euphorbia
Honey

31. Nwadjahane, Southern Mozambique
Increasingly frequent and
severe droughts, floods, and
storms
Fertile lowlands good crops
but can be destroyed during
flood
Eduardo Highlands good crops of
Mondlane maize and cassava during
http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/researc flood years, but less
h/landscape/projects/adaptiv...
productive otherwise

32. In many places extreme events (e.g.
droughts and floods) will occur with
greater frequency and intensity
How do we build Resilient
Livelihoods?

33. Goddard GHCN_GISS_HR2SST_1200km
_Anom07_2010_2010_1951_1980
Russia and Pakistan 2010
Logistics cluster,
Islamabad

37. Where are the Greenhouse Gases
coming from?

38. Agriculture’s Greenhouse Gases
• CO2 – deforestation, loss of soil carbon
• Methane – flooded rice, enteric
fermentation in cattle
• Nitrous Oxide – microbial
transformation of nitrogen in soils and
manures

39. Win-win Solutions
Conservation Farming in Zimbabwe
Ploughed
3 years minimum

40. 2-4 tonnes C/ha

41. Going to Scale – Some principles
• The private sector is key
• In most cases there has to be a public‐private partnership.
• Each value chain is likely to be different.
• The value added needs to be biased to the lower levels of
the value chain to achieve better equity.
• There is likely to be a significant role for farmer
associations
• much of the success depends on the details of the
pathways, processes and deals between the partners that
are struck.
•

42. A Comprehensive Framework
Enabling national governments in
partnerships with aid agencies, NGOs
and the private sector, to help
smallholders achieve food security for
themselves and their communities and
at the same time sustainably increase
their incomes