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Agronomy
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Smallholder Agriculture: Where We Are and Pathways towards the Future
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Smallholder Agriculture: Where We Are and Pathways towards the Future

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 15392

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Freyer

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, 1180 Vienna, Austria
Interests: organic farming systems; societal discourse on food systems and their differentiation; smallholder farming in low income countries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on worldwide challenges to, and future perspectives for smallholder farming. It argues that ecological food print of smallholder farms, and contributions to food security and sovereignty and regional economy provide the potential for high resilience, thereby making regional food systems less vulnerable and increasing their adaptive capacity to ecological, social, and economic crises, and finally strengthening the global food system as a whole. Nevertheless, the excellence of smallholder farming is controversial (Ju et al., 2016).

Smallholder farmers still grow the largest share to meet global food demand (Lanka et al., 2017). Using ecological methods, there is a significant potential for smallholder farms to double or even triple their production. But the challenges they face are enormous. On the one hand, smallholder farmers confront the loss of land for several reasons; access to regional and global markets is controlled via middlemen, juridical hurdles, and unjust trade conditions; support via policies is limited and when subsidies are available, they are channeled primarily to large farms. On the other hand, the youth/children of smallholder farmers are no longer interested in a lifestyle that appears neither to be attractive nor provide a decent income and are leaving rural areas.

This Special Issue sheds light on the multiple dimensions and challenges of smallholder farmers and discusses their future perspectives and roles in light of the great challenges in a world confronted with dramatic changes. Specifically, the chapters raise questions about the future of smallholder farmers and the kinds, characteristics, and environments of transformation pathways in the light of global commitments (SDGs, biodiversity conventions, food security, etc.) and policy conditions for marketing and distribution, to keep smallholder farms vital and to increase their ecological, social, and economic performance, i.e., contributions towards the resilience of local and the global food system under expected future challenges. Contributions offer perspectives on multiple facets of smallholder farming from recent empirical research, but also from reflective papers on the conditions in different continents with different environments and enabling different livelihoods for smallholder farming.

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Freyer
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Smallholder farming
  • Productivity potential
  • Income combinations
  • Generations and gender
  • Societal discourse
  • Transformation
  • Global commitments (SDG, biodiversity convention, etc.)
  • Policy goals and targets

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 2344 KiB  
Article
Role of Policies, Stakeholder Programs and Interventions in Agricultural Diversification among Smallholder Farmers: A Case of Lilongwe District in Malawi
by Paul Fatch, Charles Masangano, Thomas Hilger, Irmgard Jordan, Judith Francesca Mangani Kamoto, Isaac Mambo, Alexander Kalimbira, Gabriella Chiutsi-Phiri and Ernst-August Nuppenau
Agronomy 2021, 11(7), 1351; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11071351 - 30 Jun 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3829
Abstract
Globally, governments and agricultural organizations implement policies and programs reflected in interventions such as input subsidies, extension services for modern inputs and training, which either enable or hinder agricultural diversification. A study was carried out from 2016 to 2019 in Lilongwe district, Malawi, [...] Read more.
Globally, governments and agricultural organizations implement policies and programs reflected in interventions such as input subsidies, extension services for modern inputs and training, which either enable or hinder agricultural diversification. A study was carried out from 2016 to 2019 in Lilongwe district, Malawi, to determine the influence of policies, programs and interventions on agricultural diversification. The study was using a mixed-method sequential explanatory design. It involved a literature review, interviews with 424 male and female smallholder farmers, 35 demonstration plots on agricultural diversification, 27 focus group discussions with farmers, and 17 key informant interviews with stakeholder representatives. The literature review showed that the 2016 Malawi agricultural policy already prioritized agricultural diversification as it included a policy statement and policy objective on agricultural diversification. This study found that stakeholders, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, Total Land Care, National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi, School of Agriculture for Family Independence, and Trustees of Agriculture Promotion Program, were promoting agricultural diversification. They did it by (i) organizing farmers into groups for agricultural diversification activities, (ii) provision of extension advice, and (iii) providing inputs for different crops as well as livestock either for free, on pass-on, or through loans. However, interventions were on small scale, had not fully addressed hindrances to agricultural diversification, were mostly supply-driven, and the interventions themselves faced sustainability-threatening problems such as failure to pass on livestock and seeds. The agricultural policy was thus not sufficiently translated into widespread programs and interventions to foster improvement in agricultural diversification. As such, we suggest re-channeling of funding from promoting mono-cropping to agricultural diversification by broadening the crop and livestock focus of advisory services, enabling farmer organization initiatives and community engagement for farmers to solve most diversification challenges on their own. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smallholder Agriculture: Where We Are and Pathways towards the Future)
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13 pages, 1865 KiB  
Article
Cultivation of Cowpea Challenges in West Africa for Food Security: Analysis of Factors Driving Yield Gap in Benin
by Firmin N. Anago, Emile C. Agbangba, Brice T. C. Oussou, Gustave D. Dagbenonbakin and Lucien G. Amadji
Agronomy 2021, 11(6), 1139; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11061139 - 3 Jun 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3572
Abstract
Feeding the world in 2050 requires us to find ways to boost yields of the main local crops. Among those crops, cowpea is one of the grain legumes that is playing an important role in the livelihood of millions of people in West [...] Read more.
Feeding the world in 2050 requires us to find ways to boost yields of the main local crops. Among those crops, cowpea is one of the grain legumes that is playing an important role in the livelihood of millions of people in West Africa, especially in Benin. Unfortunately, cowpea on-farm yields are very low. In order to understand the main factors explaining cowpea yield gaps, we collected and analyzed detailed survey data from 298 cowpea fields in Benin during the 2017, 2018 and 2019′s rainy seasons, respectively. Composite soil samples were collected from cowpea fields and analyzed in the laboratory. Data on farm field management practices and field conditions were recorded through interviews with 606 farmers. Average cowpea grain yields were low and seldom surpassed 700 kg ha−1 on farmer’s fields. Significant differences were observed between cowpea grain yields from northern to southern Benin (p < 0.05), and the lowest yields were observed in northern Benin. These low yields are related to crop management practices, soil nutrient contents, and the interaction of both. According to the model of regression tree from northern to southern Benin, the use of mineral fertilizer, insecticide sprays to control pests, and the improvement of phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium (P, N, K) and cation sum content in the topsoil would increase cowpea grain yields. Insect pests, diseases, and soil fertility decline are the largest constraints limiting grain yield in Benin. Future research should focus on formulating site-specific fertilizer recommendations for effective cowpea cultivation in Benin, as well as the control of insect pests and diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smallholder Agriculture: Where We Are and Pathways towards the Future)
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15 pages, 294 KiB  
Article
Farmers’ Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Reducing the Risk of Rice Production: Evidence from Rajshahi District in Bangladesh
by Shahjahan Ali, Bikash Chandra Ghosh, Ataul Gani Osmani, Elias Hossain and Csaba Fogarassy
Agronomy 2021, 11(3), 600; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11030600 - 22 Mar 2021
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6177
Abstract
A lack of adaptive capacities for climate change prevents poor farmers from diversifying agricultural production in Bangladesh’s drought-resilient areas. Climate change adaptation strategies can reduce the production risk relating to unforeseen climatic shocks and increase farmers’ food, income, and livelihood security. This paper [...] Read more.
A lack of adaptive capacities for climate change prevents poor farmers from diversifying agricultural production in Bangladesh’s drought-resilient areas. Climate change adaptation strategies can reduce the production risk relating to unforeseen climatic shocks and increase farmers’ food, income, and livelihood security. This paper investigates rice farmers’ adaptive capacities to adapt climate change strategies to reduce the rice production risk. The study collected 400 farm-level micro-data of rice farmers with the direct cooperation of Rajshahi District. The survey was conducted during periods between June and July of 2020. Rice farmers’ adaptive capacities were estimated quantitatively by categorizing the farmers as high, moderate, and low level adapters to climate change adaptation strategies. In this study, a Cobb–Douglas production function was used to measure the effects of farmers’ adaptive capacities on rice production. The obtained results show that farmers are moderately adaptive in terms of adaptation strategies on climate change and the degree of adaptation capacities. Agronomic practices such as the quantity of fertilizer used, the amount of labor, the farm’s size, and extension contacts have a substantial impact on rice production. This study recommends that a farmer more significantly adjusts to adaptation strategies on climate change to reduce rice production. These strategies will help farmers to reduce the risk and produce higher quality rice. Consequently, rice farmers should facilitate better extension services and change the present agronomic practice to attain a higher adaptation status. It can be very clearly seen that low adaptability results in lower rice yields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smallholder Agriculture: Where We Are and Pathways towards the Future)
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