Participating in AFLi Exemplar project has positive impacts on ethnic women such as increasing their network, decision making skills, public speaking skills. However, the rate of female farmers accessing and using project extension materials or participated in project nurseries and applying agroforestry techniques remains limited. This requires understanding of the real needs and interests grounded in those socio-cultural contexts as the ethnic groups living in the Northern mountain areas in Vietnam have unique social and cultural norms and values. The case studies have shown that agricultural activities are highly gendered, in which men and women play specific roles and have different particular constraints and interests. Women are highly constrained by gender norms, access to resources, decision-making power and a prevailing positive-feedback loop of time poverty, especially in H’mong community. A holistic, time-saving approach to addressing women’s daily activities could reduce the effects of time poverty and increase project participation. As women were highly willing to share project information, project impacts would be more successful with increased participation from women by utilizing informal channels of communication and knowledge dissemination. Extension materials designed for ethnic women should have less text and more visualization. Access to information is a vital constraint that perpetuates the norm that men are decision-makers thereby enhancing their perceived ownership, where women have limited access to information and so leave final decisions to men, especially in Hmong families. Old H’mong women have Vietnamese language barrier which prevent them from accessing project materials. Further research into an adaptive framework which can be applied in a variety of contexts is recommended. This framework should prioritize time-saving activities for women and include materials highlighting key considerations to maintain accountability among project support staff.
Tag: agriculture
Building farmer organisations’ capacity to collectively adopt agroforestry and sustainable agriculture land management practices in Lake Victoria Basin
Key messages
- Agroforestry and sustainable agriculture land management are feasible approaches for combating the impacts of climate change on smallholder farming systems.
- Building capacity and collective farmer organization structures are key in enabling women to participate in sustainable agriculture practices.
Trends and challenges for developing next generation of business and finance schemes for smallholders
The agriculture sector in Indonesia is experiencing a major transition. While the Indonesian population increased from 206 to 237 million people in the period from 2000 to 2010, the number of smallholders decreased from 31 million in 2003 to 26 million in 2013 (BPS 2014). One important trend that may affect agricultural sector development is the increasing share of older people who are smallholders. The 2013 agricultural census shows that about 12% of smallholders in Indonesia are aged above 65 years, and 60% of the smallholders are above 45 years old (BPS 2014). There are indications that older people will remain in the agricultural sector, as younger people tend to move out to other sectors. Smallholders are aging, and younger people are not interested in farming. The challenge for the Government of Indonesia is to formulate policy options to encourage the next generation of smallholders to stay in the agriculture sector (Ngadi 2014). There are some notable exceptions. For example, in the oil palm sector, the profitability of the crops has attracted new smallholders to cultivate the crop, either by opening new land or converting existing crops into oil palm (Feintrenie et al. 2010). Crops with strong export orientation, such as coffee and cocoa, may follow similar trends.
The global cropland footprint of the non-food bioeconomy
A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for non-food purposes. The derived products include, for example, biofuels, textiles, detergents or cosmetics. Given the far-reaching global implications of an expanding nonfood bioeconomy, an assessment of the bioeconomy’s resource use from a footprint perspective is urgently needed. We determine the global cropland footprint of non-food products with a hybrid land flow accounting model combining data from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the multi-regional input-output model EXIOBASE. The globally interlinked model covers all cropland areas used for the production of crop- and animal-based non-food commodities for the years from 1995 to 2010. We analyse global patterns ofraw material producers, processers and consumers of bio-based non-food products, with a particular focus on the European Union. Results illustrate that the EU is a major processer and the number one consumer region of non-food cropland, despite being only the fifth largest producing region. Two thirds of the cropland required to satisfy EU non-food consumption are located in other world regions, giving rise to a significant dependency on imported products and to potential impacts on distant ecosystems. With almost 29% in 2010, oilseed production, used to produce, for example, biofuels, detergents and polymers, represents the dominant share in the EU’s non-food cropland footprint. There is also a significant contribution of more traditional non-food biomass uses such as fibre crops (for textiles) and animal hides and skins (for leather products). Our study emphasises the importance of comprehensively assessing the implications of the non-food bioeconomy expansion as envisaged in various policy strategies, such as the Bioeconomy Strategy of the European Commission.
Greening the Dark Side of Chocolate: A Qualitative Assessment to Inform Sustainable Supply Chains
Despite the plethora of discourse about how sustainable development should be pursued, the production of agricultural commodities is held responsible for driving c. 80% of global deforestation. Partially as a response, the private sector has made commitments to eliminate deforestation, but it is not yet clear what factors these commitments should take into account to effectively halt deforestation while also contributing to broader sustainable development. In the context of private sector commitments to zero-deforestation, this study characterizes the perceptions of different types of stakeholders along the cocoa and chocolate supply chain in order to determine the main challenges and solutions to encourage sustainable production. The main purpose is to understand the key factors that could facilitate a transition to a more sustainable supply while harmonizing the multiple actors’ interests. A qualitative thematic analysis of perceptions was conducted based on responses from 59 interviews with different stakeholders along the cocoa and chocolate supply chain in six key producing and consuming countries. Thematic analysis of the responses revealed six main themes: (1) make better use of policies, regulations and markets to help promote sustainability; (2) improve information and data (e.g., impacts of climate change on cocoa) to inform sound interventions; (3) focus on the landscape rather than the farm-level alone and improve integration of supply chain actors; (4) promote better coordination between stakeholders and initiatives (e.g., development assistance projects and corporate sustainability efforts); (5) focus on interdependent relationships between social, environmental and economic dimensions to achieve sustainable development; and (6) engage with the private sector. The study shows the importance of identifying different stakeholder priorities in order to design solutions that accommodate multiple interests. It also emphasizes the need to improve coordination and communication between stakeholders and instruments in order to address the three different dimensions of sustainability in a synergistic manner, considering the interactions from production of raw material to end consumer.
Do wealthy farmers implement better agricultural practices? An assessment of implementation of Good Agricultural Practices among different types of independent oil palm smallholders in Riau, Indonesia
Palm oil has become a leading vegetable oil over the past 30 years and smallholder farmers in Indonesia, with more than 12 million hectare the world’s largest producer of palm oil, have massively engaged in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) cultivation. In Sumatra, where more than 60% of Indonesian palm oil is cultivated, smallholders currently cover roughly 50% of the oil palm area. The rapid expansion of palm oil however did not happen without controversy. In current efforts by the Indonesian government, NGO’s and private sector to improve sector performance, smallholders are often characterized as the Achilles heel of the oil palm sector due to poor practices and low yields compared to companies. However, ‘oil palm smallholders’ is a container concept and there has been only limited research into smallholder diversity beyond the organised versus independent farmer dichotomy. This research delves into the implementation of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) among seven types of independent smallholders in Rokan Hulu regency, Riau province. The research area consisted of a relative established agricultural area on mineral soils and a relative frontier, mostly on peat. Smallholder types ranged from small local farmers to large farmers who usually reside in urban areas far from their plantation and regard oil palm cultivation as an investment opportunity. The underlying hypothesis is that larger farmers have more capital and therefore implement better agricultural practices than small farmers, who are usually more cash constrained. A wide range of methods was applied, including farmer and farm surveys, remote sensing, tissue analysis and photo interpretation by experts. These methods provided data on fertilizer use, nutrient conditions in oil palms, planting material, planting patterns, and other management practices in the plantations. Results show that yields are poor, implementation of GAP are limited and there is much room for improvement among all farmer types. Poor planting materials, square planting patterns, and limited nutrient applications were particularly prevalent. This implies that farmers across different typologies opt for a low-input low-output system for a myriad of reasons and that under current conditions, initiatives such as improving access to finance or availability of good planting material alone are unlikely to significantly improve the productivity and sustainability of the smallholder oil palm sector.
Host country governance and the African land rush: 7 reasons why large-scale farmland investments fail to contribute to sustainable development
The large social and environmental footprint of rising investor demand for Africa’s farmland has in recent years become a much-examined area of enquiry. This has produced a rich body of literature that has generated valuable insights into the underlying drivers, trends, social and environmental impacts, discursive implications, and global governance options. Host country governance dynamics have in contrast remained an unexplored theme, despite its central role in facilitating and legitimizing unsustainable farmland investments. This article contributes to this research gap by synthesizing results and lessons from 38 case studies conducted in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia. It shows how and why large-scale farmland investments are often synonymous with displacement, dispossession, and environmental degradation and, thereby, highlights seven outcome determinants that merit more explicit treatment in academic and policy discourse.