RD - Rural Development: An engineering perspective on sustainable smallholder farming in developing countries

The low productivity of smallholder farming systems and enterprises is attributed mainly to the limited resources of farming households and to the application of inappropriate skills and practices that can lead to land degradation. Land productivity may be raised by improved soil and water management and by mechanization (considering the whole spectrum of power sources) that makes better use of human labour and other resources. However, mechanization programmes, which facilitate soil and water management, have to consider cultural and social factors as well as the immediate technical and economic issues. The livelihoods approach provides a framework for dealing with such considerations, which can be elicited through the participation of farmers in the research and development activities. Examples are given of participatory research (i.e. research in which scientists and farmers participate as partners) to raise smallholder productivity sustainably in India, Zimbabwe and Latin America. Sustainability is a key issue for economic security in the longer term, and depends on many interacting factors both within and outside the tasks of crop production. The most significant of these factors are discussed and it is emphasized that involving farmers provides a reliable means of accounting for them and enabling the farmers to apply new knowledge to raise productivity, but within the contexts of their own livelihood strategies.