small-scale farmers and improve food-security, the environment
and the economy without the use of GMOs. Why not invest in it?
Agro-ecological farming methods, as commonly used in
slam-scale farming, are shown to generate higher yields, grow
plants that are more resilient to stress, and make farms less
dependent on fossil-fuel-derived energy.
agriculture lie with the small-scale farmers? Well, in Africa it
certainly could. According to Dr Pieter Mulder, former Deputy
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 85% of all farms
in Africa are smaller than 2ha, compared to only 4% in other
parts of the world. If we take sugarcane farming in South Africa
as an example, there are approximately 22 000 small-scale
farmers who grow cane on plots of 1.2ha, on average. Whereas
they account for only 8% of the total South African sugar
production (the remaining 92% being produced by the 1 413
registered large-scale growers), their cane is of higher quality
(higher sucrose content) and their land delive '2&WGFW"