Abstract:
A large proportion of small-scale farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa are
resource-constrained in terms of productive assets. Their agricultural productive capacity is low and they remain staple food buyers. As a result, rural poverty rates have remained
virtually unchanged if not gone up. A major challenge for CAADP Investment Plans,
therefore, is how to effectively reach the least productive of the smallholder population.
Doing so will require a combination of strategies: first, investing in agricultural research
and farmer skills to transfer technologies that are appropriate for one-hectare farms; second, reducing the costs of putting food on consumers’ tables so as to raise the disposable incomes of urban and net grain-buying rural households; third, encourage the adoption of more predictable, rules-based forms of state operations in food markets to promote more rapid private investment in the food systems; and finally, support the development of alternative commodity value chains to provide incentives for smallholders to raise their incomes through the diversification of cropping patterns from low-value staples to higher-return crops.
