Why smallholder farmers are key to both African and global food security : Africa
To keep humanity fed, farmers will have to nearly double their output. And it is possible to do just this while at the same time making a significant contribution to combatting climate change by rewarding farmers for increasing the amount of carbon stored in the soil they cultivate.
Typically consisting of farms of one to 2 hectares, smallholders produce a large majority of the food across sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, they account for nearly two billion people - roughly In the short-term, the outlook is uncertain. A greater proportion of income spent on food means smallholder farmers are vulnerable to rising prices. With the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, the price of agricultural inputs like fertilizer have soared leading to reduced usage and lower yields.
Often, the main objective of smallholders is subsistence rather than trade, an inevitable outcome of poor infrastructure. In most parts of Africa, an estimated one-third of food output is lost each year due to a lack of proper warehouse storage.
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