• Home
  • About RSIS
    • Introduction
    • Building the Foundations
    • Welcome Message
    • Board of Governors
    • Staff Profiles
      • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
      • Dean’s Office
      • Management
      • Distinguished Fellows
      • Faculty and Research
      • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
      • Visiting Fellows
      • Adjunct Fellows
      • Administrative Staff
    • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
    • RSIS Endowment Fund
    • Endowed Professorships
    • Career Opportunities
    • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
    • Research Centres
      • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
      • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
      • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
      • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
      • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
    • Research Programmes
      • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
      • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
    • Future Issues and Technology Cluster
    • [email protected] Newsletter
    • Other Research
      • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
    • Graduate Programmes Office
    • Overview
    • MSc (Asian Studies)
    • MSc (International Political Economy)
    • MSc (International Relations)
    • MSc (Strategic Studies)
    • NTU-Warwick Double Masters Programme
    • PhD Programme
    • Exchange Partners and Programmes
    • How to Apply
    • Financial Assistance
    • Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
    • RSIS Alumni
  • Alumni & Networks
    • Alumni
    • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
    • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
    • International Strategy Forum-Asia (ISF-Asia)
    • SRP Executive Programme
    • Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
  • Publications
    • RSIS Publications
      • Annual Reviews
      • Books
      • Bulletins and Newsletters
      • Commentaries
      • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
      • Commemorative / Event Reports
      • IDSS Paper
      • Interreligious Relations
      • Monographs
      • NTS Insight
      • Policy Reports
      • Working Papers
      • RSIS Publications for the Year
    • Glossary of Abbreviations
    • External Publications
      • Authored Books
      • Journal Articles
      • Edited Books
      • Chapters in Edited Books
      • Policy Reports
      • Working Papers
      • Op-Eds
      • External Publications for the Year
    • Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
  • Media
    • Great Powers
    • Sustainable Security
    • Other Resource Pages
    • Media Highlights
    • News Releases
    • Speeches
    • Vidcast Channel
    • Audio/Video Forums
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
RSISVideoCast RSISVideoCast rsis.sg
Linkedin
instagram instagram rsis.sg
RSS
  • Home
  • About RSIS
      • Introduction
      • Building the Foundations
      • Welcome Message
      • Board of Governors
      • Staff Profiles
        • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
        • Dean’s Office
        • Management
        • Distinguished Fellows
        • Faculty and Research
        • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
        • Visiting Fellows
        • Adjunct Fellows
        • Administrative Staff
      • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
      • RSIS Endowment Fund
      • Endowed Professorships
      • Career Opportunities
      • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
      • Research Centres
        • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
        • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
        • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
        • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
        • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      • Research Programmes
        • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
        • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      • Future Issues and Technology Cluster
      • [email protected] Newsletter
      • Other Research
        • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
      • Graduate Programmes Office
      • Overview
      • MSc (Asian Studies)
      • MSc (International Political Economy)
      • MSc (International Relations)
      • MSc (Strategic Studies)
      • NTU-Warwick Double Masters Programme
      • PhD Programme
      • Exchange Partners and Programmes
      • How to Apply
      • Financial Assistance
      • Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
      • RSIS Alumni
  • Alumni & Networks
      • Alumni
      • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
      • Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
      • International Strategy Forum-Asia (ISF-Asia)
      • SRP Executive Programme
      • Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
  • Publications
      • RSIS Publications
        • Annual Reviews
        • Books
        • Bulletins and Newsletters
        • Commentaries
        • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
        • Commemorative / Event Reports
        • IDSS Paper
        • Interreligious Relations
        • Monographs
        • NTS Insight
        • Policy Reports
        • Working Papers
        • RSIS Publications for the Year
      • Glossary of Abbreviations
      • External Publications
        • Authored Books
        • Journal Articles
        • Edited Books
        • Chapters in Edited Books
        • Policy Reports
        • Working Papers
        • Op-Eds
        • External Publications for the Year
      • Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
  • Media
      • Great Powers
      • Sustainable Security
      • Other Resource Pages
      • Media Highlights
      • News Releases
      • Speeches
      • Vidcast Channel
      • Audio/Video Forums
  • Events
  • Giving
  • Contact Us
  • instagram instagram rsis.sg
Connect

Getting to RSIS

Map

Address

Nanyang Technological University
Block S4, Level B3,
50 Nanyang Avenue,
Singapore 639798

View location on Google maps Click here for directions to RSIS

Get in Touch

    Connect with Us

      rsis.ntu
      rsis_ntu
      rsisntu
    RSISVideoCast RSISVideoCast rsisvideocast
      school/rsis-ntu
    instagram instagram rsis.sg
      RSS
    Subscribe to RSIS Publications
    Subscribe to RSIS Events

    RSIS Intranet

    S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Think Tank and Graduate School Ponder The Improbable Since 1966
    Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University

    Skip to content

     
    • RSIS
    • Publication
    • RSIS Publications
    • CO16120 | Less is More: Untapped Role of Small Farmers in Asia
    • Annual Reviews
    • Books
    • Bulletins and Newsletters
    • Commentaries
    • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
    • Commemorative / Event Reports
    • IDSS Paper
    • Interreligious Relations
    • Monographs
    • NTS Insight
    • Policy Reports
    • Working Papers
    • RSIS Publications for the Year

    CO16120 | Less is More: Untapped Role of Small Farmers in Asia
    Manda Foo, Paul Teng

    20 May 2016

    download pdf
    RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected].

    Synopsis

    The world’s small farmers, numbering in billions, risk losing their livelihoods to urban growth and climate change. Despite the grave challenges they face, small farmers can make the quantum leap into productivity if good sense in business and policy prevail.

    Commentary

    INADEQUATE RURAL development has left more than 2.5 billion people – the majority of them small farmers with plots less than two hectares – out of economic growth. Their plight is characterised by poor access to proper land holdings, technology, credit, professional services, economies of scale and modern supply chains.

    Despite the odds, small farmers contribute around half the world’s food; that figure increases to 80 per cent in Asia. Besides feeding themselves, Asian small farmers have substantially contributed to exports of rice, fish, fruit, sugar, coffee and dairy, which have enriched the region. As yields in developed countries stagnate and climate change threatens resource availability, development practitioners are turning to the productivity potential of small farmers as a beacon of hope for tomorrow’s global food security.

    Livelihoods at Stake

    The focus on small farmers is particularly sensible in Asia, where 87 percent of the world’s 500 million small farms exist and where the rural population is still larger than the urban. In ASEAN countries, agriculture plays a central role in supporting the livelihoods of 100 million or so people, the majority of them in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

    The twin tides of urbanisation and globalisation, exacerbated by climate change, are putting increasing strain on small farmers’ livelihoods. Young males in rural areas are moving to cities in search for higher incomes, leaving behind less-educated rural women, old people and young children. A decline in agriculture’s performance due to depleting natural resources and land degradation further fuels urban migration.

    Climate change affects smallholders in tropical regions more, and farmers in ASEAN have seen their lands destroyed by prolonged drought and flash floods. The scorching of barren paddy fields in the Philippines and Malaysia this year paints a grim and now common picture. However, this will not be the first time in history that small farmers have had to adapt, and their chances of success are improved if given access to proper governance, business skills and science.

    Silver Linings: Biotechnology and Back to Basics

    The challenge at hand is doubling food production using less resources to feed nine billion people – many with diversified diets – by 2050. Smallholders are particularly suited to help meet this with the combination of traditional farming methods and biotechnology crops. Both are suited to smallholder production and could provide the needed quantum leap in productivity.

    Biotechnology encompasses a collection of technologies that includes biotechnology crops. The latest report by the International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications (ISAAA) shows that biotech crop’s proven benefits are astounding: 18 million farmers that adopted biotech crops have seen incomes and profits rise an average of 68 per cent. They cut pesticide use by a third (collectively equivalent to 584 million kg!) and saw yields increase by a fifth. Global biotech crop area increased 100 fold to 180 million hectares last year.  Farmers in the Americas have been most receptive, making it the region consistently producing food surpluses for export to Asia.

    Future prospects are impressive with new biotech crops in the pipeline and a new “genome editing” technology that will bypass restrictive regulatory roadblocks and shorten the time to application. These opportunities hold immeasurable potential for Asian governments to turn the tide from being net food importers to being more self-sufficient and resilient through their untapped assets of small farmers.

    Biotechnology is not a panacea but it is an important set of technologies that should complement traditional or indigenous agricultural practices. Since the first agrarian communities were settled 10,000 years ago, humans have been modifying both the environment and their food sources, such as through using irrigation and breeding for better crops. Early agricultural science is a precursor to contemporary achievements and not in opposition. Separating traditional knowledge with modern science creates false schisms and does not contribute to finding bold solutions for food security and sustainability.

    Technological advancements like biotechnology should be balanced with a back-to-basics philosophy and science-based traditional practices, where man understands he is part of nature’s cycles and dynamics and not above it.

    Moving Forward: Inclusive Agriculture

    The germane question regarding smallholder farmers is not whether they have a role to play in food security, but how companies and governments can tap their strengths and enable them to become an integral part of modern agri-food supply chains. A shining ray of hope is the emergence of agribusiness initiatives to engage small farmers, often starting with corporate social responsibility projects and leading to strong business alignments. This helps small holders move from subsistence to entrepreneurship. Groups like the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Grow Asia are at the forefront of these initiatives, working with the private sector, government agencies and the ASEAN Secretariat.

    For the estimated 100 Million small farmers in ASEAN, every pilot to engage them has the potential to create multiplier effects and uplift an entire rural community. The image of a small farmer should not be one of a disenfranchised peasant losing his land to mercenary business and climate extremities, but of a resilient, purposeful individual empowered by his ability to feed his household and his country. Now is the time to upscale these many pilots.

    About the Authors

    Manda Foo is a Research Associate in the National Institute of Education (NIE). Paul Teng is Professor and Principal Officer, NIE, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

    Categories: Commentaries / Country and Region Studies / Non-Traditional Security / East Asia and Asia Pacific / Global / Southeast Asia and ASEAN

    Last updated on 20/05/2016

    RSIS Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant commentary and analysis of topical and contemporary issues. The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), NTU. These commentaries may be reproduced with prior permission from RSIS and due credit to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email to Editor RSIS Commentary at [email protected].

    Synopsis

    The world’s small farmers, numbering in billions, risk losing their livelihoods to urban growth and climate change. Despite the grave challenges they face, small farmers can make the quantum leap into productivity if good sense in business and policy prevail.

    Commentary

    INADEQUATE RURAL development has left more than 2.5 billion people – the majority of them small farmers with plots less than two hectares – out of economic growth. Their plight is characterised by poor access to proper land holdings, technology, credit, professional services, economies of scale and modern supply chains.

    Despite the odds, small farmers contribute around half the world’s food; that figure increases to 80 per cent in Asia. Besides feeding themselves, Asian small farmers have substantially contributed to exports of rice, fish, fruit, sugar, coffee and dairy, which have enriched the region. As yields in developed countries stagnate and climate change threatens resource availability, development practitioners are turning to the productivity potential of small farmers as a beacon of hope for tomorrow’s global food security.

    Livelihoods at Stake

    The focus on small farmers is particularly sensible in Asia, where 87 percent of the world’s 500 million small farms exist and where the rural population is still larger than the urban. In ASEAN countries, agriculture plays a central role in supporting the livelihoods of 100 million or so people, the majority of them in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

    The twin tides of urbanisation and globalisation, exacerbated by climate change, are putting increasing strain on small farmers’ livelihoods. Young males in rural areas are moving to cities in search for higher incomes, leaving behind less-educated rural women, old people and young children. A decline in agriculture’s performance due to depleting natural resources and land degradation further fuels urban migration.

    Climate change affects smallholders in tropical regions more, and farmers in ASEAN have seen their lands destroyed by prolonged drought and flash floods. The scorching of barren paddy fields in the Philippines and Malaysia this year paints a grim and now common picture. However, this will not be the first time in history that small farmers have had to adapt, and their chances of success are improved if given access to proper governance, business skills and science.

    Silver Linings: Biotechnology and Back to Basics

    The challenge at hand is doubling food production using less resources to feed nine billion people – many with diversified diets – by 2050. Smallholders are particularly suited to help meet this with the combination of traditional farming methods and biotechnology crops. Both are suited to smallholder production and could provide the needed quantum leap in productivity.

    Biotechnology encompasses a collection of technologies that includes biotechnology crops. The latest report by the International Service for the Acquisition of AgriBiotech Applications (ISAAA) shows that biotech crop’s proven benefits are astounding: 18 million farmers that adopted biotech crops have seen incomes and profits rise an average of 68 per cent. They cut pesticide use by a third (collectively equivalent to 584 million kg!) and saw yields increase by a fifth. Global biotech crop area increased 100 fold to 180 million hectares last year.  Farmers in the Americas have been most receptive, making it the region consistently producing food surpluses for export to Asia.

    Future prospects are impressive with new biotech crops in the pipeline and a new “genome editing” technology that will bypass restrictive regulatory roadblocks and shorten the time to application. These opportunities hold immeasurable potential for Asian governments to turn the tide from being net food importers to being more self-sufficient and resilient through their untapped assets of small farmers.

    Biotechnology is not a panacea but it is an important set of technologies that should complement traditional or indigenous agricultural practices. Since the first agrarian communities were settled 10,000 years ago, humans have been modifying both the environment and their food sources, such as through using irrigation and breeding for better crops. Early agricultural science is a precursor to contemporary achievements and not in opposition. Separating traditional knowledge with modern science creates false schisms and does not contribute to finding bold solutions for food security and sustainability.

    Technological advancements like biotechnology should be balanced with a back-to-basics philosophy and science-based traditional practices, where man understands he is part of nature’s cycles and dynamics and not above it.

    Moving Forward: Inclusive Agriculture

    The germane question regarding smallholder farmers is not whether they have a role to play in food security, but how companies and governments can tap their strengths and enable them to become an integral part of modern agri-food supply chains. A shining ray of hope is the emergence of agribusiness initiatives to engage small farmers, often starting with corporate social responsibility projects and leading to strong business alignments. This helps small holders move from subsistence to entrepreneurship. Groups like the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the Grow Asia are at the forefront of these initiatives, working with the private sector, government agencies and the ASEAN Secretariat.

    For the estimated 100 Million small farmers in ASEAN, every pilot to engage them has the potential to create multiplier effects and uplift an entire rural community. The image of a small farmer should not be one of a disenfranchised peasant losing his land to mercenary business and climate extremities, but of a resilient, purposeful individual empowered by his ability to feed his household and his country. Now is the time to upscale these many pilots.

    About the Authors

    Manda Foo is a Research Associate in the National Institute of Education (NIE). Paul Teng is Professor and Principal Officer, NIE, and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

    Categories: Commentaries / Country and Region Studies / Non-Traditional Security

    Last updated on 20/05/2016

    Back to top

    Terms of Use | Privacy Statement
    Copyright © S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. All rights reserved.
    This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By continuing, you are agreeing to the use of cookies on your device as described in our privacy policy. Learn more
    OK
    Latest Book
    CO16120 | Less is More: Untapped Role of Small Farmers in Asia

    Synopsis

    The world’s small farmers, numbering in billions, risk losing their livelihoods to urban growth and climate change. Despite the grave challenges they f ...
    more info