Friday, December 7, 2018

Small but mightily important

The Artdog Images of Interest

During my research last month into food insecurity, I discovered the importance of what are called "smallholder" farmers. I thought you might enjoy a deeper look into these essential participants in their local economies.



A "smallholder" farm covers two hectares or less of land. That defines more than 475 million farms throughout the world. How much land is that?





It's not a lot of land. This means they need to become more and more efficient, if they are to feed a growing number of hungry mouths as we move into the future. Many large corporations have begun to take notice.

As the Starbucks video above points out, they produce about 80% of the world's coffee--and reportedly are the source of more than 90% of the rice production in Tanzania, a reflection of their importance as food producers.

Another large corporation, Bayer, has produced a series of infographics about their work with smallholders.



IMAGES: Many thanks to Crop Life, for the illustrated quote from James D. Dargie; to Starbucks for the video about the size of a hectare; and to Bayer for the infographic on the "Smallholder Effect."


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