ABSTRACT
There are about 500 million small farms worldwide, and an estimated 2 billion people depend on them for their livelihood and well-being. Furthermore, 80% of the food consumed in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are produced on small farms (International Fund for Agricultural Development [IFAD] 2011; United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP]/IFAD 2013). Alleviating poverty of smallholder farmers is the key to lifting more than 1 billion people out of poverty (UNEP 2013). Therefore, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), of reducing poverty and food insecurity (MDG 2000) and sustainable development, cannot be realized without improving the productivity and sustainability of smallholder farms. However, agronomic productivity and the well-being of smallholder farms are being undermined by soil degradation, decline in ecosystem functions and services, poor infrastructure, and weak institutional support. While, collectively, smallholder farmers have wealth of traditional knowledge and practical solutions for addressing site-specific constraints, most have neither the access nor the capacity to avail the benefits of modern technologies. For example, adoption of no-till (NT) farming and conservation agriculture (CA) is most relevant to improving productivity of smallholder farms. Despite the strong adoption of NT farming to the extent of 125 million hectare (Mha) worldwide (Friedrich et al. 2012), the adoption by smallholders has lagged behind because of several constraints (Lal 2007). Yet the strategy is to promote
16.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 385 16.2 Sustainable Intensification ............................................................................ 386 16.3 Issues of Smallholder Farming ..................................................................... 387 16.4 Payments for Ecosystem Services ................................................................ 388 16.5 Technological Options for Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder
Agriculture .................................................................................................... 388 16.6 Research and Development Priorities ...........................................................390 16.7 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 391 References .............................................................................................................. 392
adoption of best management practices (BMPs) and strategies of “sustainable intensification.” Thus, the objective of this concluding chapter of Advances in Soil Science is to identify appropriate technological options for “sustainable intensification” of agriculture practiced by smallholder farmers to advance MDGs with specific reference to achieving food security, alleviating poverty, and adapting to and mitigating climate change.
