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The glass is half full : Interview – Parviz Koohafkan
By Jorge Chavez-Tafur,LEISA India, Dec 2009
Parviz Koohafkan is currently director of the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAO. His is a positive view: inspite of the difficulties that small-scale farmers face, they play a very important role in rural development, and this is increasingly being recognised. Their role will therefore become even more important – especially in the face of climate change. Interview Jorge Chavez-Tafur
You have been supporting small-scale farmers for a very long time. But many people say that small-scale farming is disappearing, and that it has to disappear if we are to feed a growing population. What is your view on this?I don’t agree. Even though there has been a lot of migration, the number of small-scale farmers remains the same over time: wearer talking about one billion people. And small-scale farmers,particularly in developing countries, not only work for their own food security and that of their region and nation, they also contribute extensively to rural development. The problem is that these farmers have not benefited from governmental policies. Most developing countries have put a lot of emphasis on the urban sector and on the development of services, and they have neglected agriculture and the rural sector. |
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Towards the celebration of an International Year of Family Farming
ByJosé María Zeberio
The preparations for the Campaign in favour of the declaration by the UN of an International Year of Family Farming began in February, 2008, in Rome (after the celebration of the Farming Forum, promoted by the IFAD) and now counts on the official support of more than 270 farmers and organisations from different continents - Africa, America, Asia and Europe. the celebration of an International Year dedicated to family farming would create a unique opportunity to develop means, which would assure in the medium and long term, a prosperous and sustainable family agriculture development and,as a result, in the rural areas on all the continents, especially, in the developing countries.
The Campaign is coordinated by the World Rural Forum, a worldwide network and a non-profit making entity whose main objective is the promotion of sustainable family agriculture and the rural environment in the context of globalization. WRF is trying to get the greatest number possible of organisations to give their official support to the IYFF Campaign. These organisations participate, according to their possibilities, in the different phases of coordination and execution of the tasks of the Campaign. |
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In Focus : One step is not enough
By Benedikt Haerli, LEISA India, Dec 2009
Small-scale farmers are big news these days. “Melinda and I believe that helping the poorest small-holder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world’s single most powerful lever for reducing hunger and poverty,” said Bill Gates. It is good news indeed, that the FAO and World Bank are also re-discovering small-scale family farming as the most important source of development, and target for investments tonight hunger, which has reached unprecedented levels this year.The next peak in oil prices, or the aggregation of crop failures,will cause an acute crisis and a famine of global magnitude. Global austerity programmes, as a result of recent bailouts of banks and speculators will leave little room to man oeuvre. Increasing small-scale farmers’ yields worldwide through low input methods is simply the cheapest way to prevent the food crisis getting out of control. |
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Upscaling through local Entrepreneurs
By J P Tripathi, Kirit Jessani, LEISA India, Dec 2009
Technological interventions to be successful need to be supported with human resource development. AKRSP(I)adopted a model of preparing rural entrepreneurs in handling and maintaining water saving devices towards conserving ground water.
Junagadh, a coastal district of Gujarat is known for intensive agriculture practices, mainly cultivating water-intensive crops like groundnut. High pressure on ground water resources has led to coastal salinity ingress and drinking water scarcity in parts of the area. Micro Irrigation Systems (MIS) has many advantages for the region. Besides water saving, less draft from ground water meant improvement in ground water levels and financial gains for the farmers through increased production and reduced irrigation costs. However, the way the technology was implemented in the region could hardly help farmers to reap the intended benefits. |
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Scaling up community managed water supply programme
By J.James,LEISA India, Dec 2009
A demand based, community-managed and conservation-focused approach was envisioned to bring about a reform at the sectoral level. However, the large scale programme faced a set back when factors like people’s participation and community ownership were ignored. This experience brings forth a lot of lessons to be learnt before implementing such large people centered projects. |
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