Smallholder farmers are the new stakeholders in achieving zero hunger

OPINION | AGRICULTURE

By Simon Mone

So many years ago, the process of food cultivation through to the point of consumption in our world was a quite easy. Village farmers found it easy to do their stuff in the green fields, planning and determining what food to cultivate.

After that then they would harvest enough for food. And package the surplus would go to the market. But food crop cultivation today has transformed quite tremendously. A lot has changed in terms of; demography, technology and especially climate.

Also, the fall army worm is not helping. While some local communities can comfortably say they still harvest enough food to feed their families and sell surplus, a big number of people have evidently been unable to cope with the changes that continue to occur at our expense. They have become vulnerable. So in that sense, many communities today cannot harvest enough to eat.

They now-a-days eat poorly rather than eat healthy. This is the reality that has befallen most of our communities. We now find ourselves being surprised by sudden changes. Yet in order to fulfil a very basic need, we need food. So we must spend a big share of our cash and time on food searching. It has been made worse because there is no marked improvement in income levels. The drive to chase poverty is stagnating. Now people must split their meagre income accordingly. Therefore, populations living in poverty conditions and social vulnerability are increasingly finding it very hard.

Some groups have been harshly affected by these conditions and this now leads us to a worthy discussion. They say that in Southern Sudan, one household out of three needs urgent food assistance. And that in Nigeria, in one state (Borno) alone, about 300,000 children are facing the possibility of severe malnutrition.

Elsewhere around the world, many children are already suffering. It is a bad situation at hand that we all have to deal with. If not, then famine will wipe out a significant number of people across the world.

In Africa, the red light is already flickering as potential sufferers; South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria now seem to be in deep waters. The total number of sufferers of chronic hunger around the world already stands at over 800 million people. It keeps increasing each year (38 million more than last year). But the combined goal of the global community is to be able to attain zero hunger by year 2030, where people will have secure food production through sustainable farming.

So if farming must be sustainable, we need combined efforts. We need deliberate effort aimed at ensuring food security and sustainable agriculture. And the group that can help champion this project are the small holder farmers.

Small holder farmers need intensive training in improved farming methods. It will encourage increased harvests. Imagine if all smallholder farmers increase production by just 15% per year for the next 13 years, then we will have 2030 in sight as it will be a realistic and achievable goal. Smallholder farmers, on top on encouraging increased production, need exposure to potential markets. In this way, they will be encouraged to increase yield and the extra produce used to bring income.

Also, grouping smallholder farmers will help them get the support that they need. They will have easy access to quality seeds. And will improve quality of produce. Smallholder farmers require knowledge on packaging and handling.

Today, they struggle to find quality seeds. And so are not able to get bumper harvests. This is because many farmers lack information on current best practices. We need to encourage farmers through assistance and to conduct research and find solutions to their current hurdles. Then they will be vital in contributing to attaining sustainable food systems.

The writer is a civil engineer