Current perceptions of agriculture are too limited, according to expert Jan Douwe van der Ploeg, who would like to see donors embrace and harness the resilience and adaptability of small scale farmers.
Donors should not overlook the advantages of small scale agricultural production, which offers greater flexibility particularly in times of shifting market demands, economic uncertainty and threats of climate change.
“We normally consider agriculture and different farming systems in quite a uni-dimensional way,” said Dr van der Ploeg, with peasants at the bottom and giant agri-businesses at the top. “This is too limited.”
Dr van der Ploeg is Professor in Transition Studies at Wageningen University, The Netherlands and adviser to the Italian Minister of Agriculture, among other appointments. To see the full video interview with Dr van der Ploeg, click on the icon below.
While large agri-businesses are traditionally seen as the most important or ‘successful’ producers, small scale farmers both in the North and South have a number of noteworthy advantages.
Small scale farmers, said Dr van der Ploeg, are often very cleverly able to live self-sufficiently on sustainably produced resources. They are typically independent, yet able to produce goods for local and international markets in the form of crops, animal products or other goods.
At the same time, their resilience and flexibility enables the small scale farmer to more easily incorporate bio-diversity into their farming practices and react to changing market pressures.
Dr van der Ploeg kicked off a three day seminar on agriculture and rural development at EuropeAid headquarters in Brussels this week, in which he asked how donors could work to strengthen small scale farmers’ resilience and focus on their needs. His presentation, which is attached to this story, is available for download.
Dr van der Ploeg, www.jandouwevanderploeg.com, is the author of a new book, “The New Peasantries: Struggles for Autonomy and Sustainability in an Era of Empire and Globalisation”. To see Mr Ploeg discussing his book, click on the icon below. You can also download and read two papers by Dr van der Ploeg, one titled ‘Peasant Agriculture’ and ‘The Food Crisis, Industrialised Farming and the Imperial Regime’, both of which are attached to this article.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interests of knowledge sharing and capacity development and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission.
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