Globalisation of insight: Small-scale farmers in the face of globalisation and

rapid rural change

Bill Vorley, IIED

The shopping list for the world’s ½ billion small farms gets even longer..

• Food security• Rural poverty reduction• Managed economic transition, social cohesion• Climate change resilience /adaptation• Ecosystem services incl. soil carbon sequestration• Secure supplies for agribusiness

In the face of..• Globalisation (of trade and of expectations)• Major demographic transition, few jobs in the formal wage

economy, pluriactivity (farm/non-farm; multiple markets)• Volatile markets, new buyers• Demise of public extension/revolution in access to

information• Natural resource squeeze

The Knowledge Programme process

• Better informed policies and practices in small-scale agriculture in the face of globalisation and rapid rural change, through..

• An agency perspective • Stirring debate, challenge assumptions• Co-learning, across stakes (business,

research, civil society, farmer organisations) and regions (L America, Africa, Asia)

• Globalisation of insight: new knowledge, reframing the debate

Focus on where rural households are and how they make choices, rather than as beneficiaries of external interventions

A series of ‘Provocations’

A global Learning Network

Commissioned research

Small-scale farmers and globalizing markets:Conflicting calls for small farmer empowerment

Globalisation can and must be reversed

Small-scale farmers are an anachronism

Cooperate to compete in value chains and niche markets

Small-scale farmers are the future

Join labour market, farm and non-farm work

Globalisation is inevitable and incontrovertible

Claim rights to protect small-scale farming from globalisation

After Murphy, 2010

High expectations from the private sector as a partner in smallholder agriculture

Globalisation can and must be reversed

Small-scale farmers are an anachronism

Join labour market, farm and non-farm work

Globalisation is inevitable and incontrovertible

Claim rights to protect small-scale farming from globalisation

Small-scale farmers are the future

Cooperate to compete in value chains and niche markets

Small farmers as active economic agents

• Smallholders in markets

• Smallholders in organisations

• Smallholders in policy

• Informal sector remains major link between smallholders and consumers

• Majority not formally organised in the market. Much organisation is trader-driven

• Top 2-10% can compete in modern markets

• Successes in cooperatives.

• Successes in policy

The 2-10% visible and accessible to business, policy and NGO interventions

The reality of the majority of small farmers who are in the market

Markets “Upgrade to high value markets”Formal single-product market, value chains, certified production

Informal trade works better for smallholder realities, and remains the dominant link between small-scale farmers and urban poor

Organisations “Cooperate to compete”. Specialised cooperativesTrader and processor-driven producer organisations

The majority of small-scale producers, esp. poorer households, are not formally organised in the market

Policies “Get the institutions right to make markets work”

State policy often viewed with distrust as force of exclusion

A call to business, policymakers and service providers

• We come to Rio with long shopping lists for smallholder agriculture• We expect multiple wins -- poverty reduction, food security, security of

supply, ecosystem services, rural development -- from single tools, such as linking organised smallholders to new markets

• Those wins are often elusive – in scale and inclusiveness• Knowledge Programme -- small-scale farmers as active economic agents• Agency may often lead away from formal markets, formal organisations

or state policies and institutions. • Avoiding elitism in sustainable development interventions requires an

understanding of this• Implications for policy: sector-wide approaches; inclusive formalisation,

rather than ‘islands’ of inclusion

For more information..