Smallholder farmers struggle to achieve food security in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It is urgently required to find appropriate practices for enhancing crop production while avoiding large increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in SSA. This review aims to identify common smallholder farming practices for enhancing crop production, to assess how these affect GHG emissions and to identify strategies that not only enhance crop production but also mitigate GHG emissions in SSA. To increase crop production and ensure food security, smallholder farmers usually expand agricultural land, develop water harvesting and irrigation techniques and increase cropping intensity and fertilizer use. These practices may result in changing carbon stocks and GHG emissions, potentially creating trade-offs between food security and GHG mitigation. Agricultural land expansion at the expense of forests is the most dominant source of GHG emissions in SSA. While water harvesting and irrigation can increase soil organic carbon, they can trigger GHG emissions. Increasing cropping intensity can enhance the decomposition of soil organic matter, thus releasing carbon dioxide. Increasing nitrogen fertilizer use can enhance soil organic carbon, but also leads to increasing nitrous oxide emissions. An integrated land, water and nutrient management strategy is necessary to enhance crop production and mitigate GHG emissions. Among the most relevant strategies found, agroforesty practices in degraded and marginal lands could replace expanding agricultural croplands. In addition, water management, via adequate rainwater harvesting and irrigation techniques, together with appropriate nutrient management should be considered. Therefore, a land-water-nutrient nexus (LWNN) approach will enable an integrated and sustainable solution to increasing crop production and mitigating GHG emissions. Various technical, economic and policy barriers hinder implementing the LWNN approach on the ground, but these may be overcome through developing appropriate technologies, disseminating them through farmer to farmer approaches and developing specific policies to address smallholder land tenure issues and motivate long-term investment.

Challenges and opportunities for enhancing food security and greenhouse gas mitigation in smallholder farming in sub-Saharan Africa. A review

Agricultural Polices and Food Security: Impact on Smallholder Farmers in Northern Ghana Ghana’s government over the years has adopted and implemented several agricultural polices and programmes with the overall objective of stimulating agricultural growth and enhancing food security. This thesis uses the Oxfam model to assess the impact of agricultural policies on food security among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana. It argues that government agricultural policies have failed to a have positive impact on food security among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana because they were more geared towards promoting the large scale commercial agricultural sector than the smallholder agriculture sector. This claim is supported by the data in Ghana which proves that food insecurity is still a major problem among smallholder farmers in northern Ghana despite the policies and programmes put in place to tackle it. The analysis is based on two main sets of data: national agricultural policies and regional policies from 1980 to 2000.

Agricultural polices and food security : impact on smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana

Among the food system's outcomes, food and nutrition security remains a key concern also in developed countries. This chapter analyzes food and nutrition security issues, unpacking the four dimensions in which the concept is articulated: availability, access, utilization and stability. Then the concept is explored, beyond the official definitions, through a description of the various frames that shape the public debate on food and nutrition security. These frames are: the classical productivist view emerged in the early post-war period; the neoproductivism, promoting a sustainable intensification aimed at producing more food while reducing negative environmental impacts, the entitlement approach based on Sen's reflections on people's capability to access food; the food sovereignty (Via Campesina, 1996) which regards food insecurity as an outcome of unequal power relations: the livelihood approach focused on the assets that determine the living gained by the individual or household; the right to food (De Schutter, 2014) based on the status of each individual as a rights-holder; the similar but less individualistic food democracy and food citizenship perspective which focusses on the collective dimension of those rights; the community food security, again close to the food citizenship but with stronger emphasis on communities and localization. Finally, the main contributions given by small farms to food and nutrition security are described, as identified on the base of the SALSA project outcomes.

Small farming and food and nutrition security

Abstract Background Currently, food and nutrition insecurity are global challenges. Millions of people are still suffering from this problem in Ethiopia. Smallholder farmers that dominated the agricultural sector in most developing countries like Ethiopia are deemed as one avenue to address such challenges. The purpose of this review was, therefore, to scrutinize the impact of smallholder agriculture production on food and nutrition security from Ethiopian context. Empirical studies were retrieved through electronic databases and the backward searching mechanism in which the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flowchart were used to select the empirical studies and to report the review results. Results The finding of the review indicated that, smallholder farmer plays a decisive role in an effort towards improving food and nutrition security through either directly as sources food and/ or indirectly provides means and mechanisms to access the required food type at different level. Furthermore, it is found that, female contributed more in securing food and nutrition status of households compared to their male counterparts. Yet, both male and female smallholder farmers are faced different challenges including lack of access to agricultural infrastructures and facilities, plant and animal disease, and gender- based difference on access to and control over productive resources. Conclusion and recommendation. Given the contributions of smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia, there is a need to strengthen capacity of female and male smallholder farmers through provision of gender responsive agricultural advisory services and credit services tailored to the local context as options in improving food and nutrition security in Ethiopia. 

pdf/a-scoping-review-on-the-impacts-of-smallholder-agriculture-1ll80kqi40.pdf

A scoping review on the impacts of smallholder agriculture production on food and nutrition security: Evidence from Ethiopia context

Household food security exists when households have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food at all times that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life Food security remains a serious challenge for many households in Ghana and the situation is even more prevalent among smallholder farmers Using data collected from 2,603 farm households across Ghana and employing an ordered probit model the determinants of food security among farm households were assessed The food security indicator-Food Consumption Score (FCS) which combines diet diversity, frequency of consumption and relative nutritional importance of different food groups was used for the analysis Results indicated that farm households (76%) across Ghana were within the acceptable household food consumption groups Nonetheless, 19% and 6% of farm households respectively were within the borderline and poor food consumption groups respectively Further analysis revealed the determinants of food security to include experience, gender, improved variety adoption, access to credit and location The suggestion is that government and private institutions should create an enabling environment to enhancing production capacities, economic and social resilience to improve on food security and nutrition

/pdf/does-food-insecurity-exist-among-farm-households-evidence-35kd9z2h48.pdf

Does Food Insecurity exist among Farm households? Evidence from Ghana

How smallholders may contribute to food and nutrition security remains a key challenge in many developing countries. Despite being the main rural actors, smallholders are frequently the most food insecure, given an array of biophysical and socioeconomic challenges that were addressed during the workshop. These proceedings discuss the potential role of smallholders in food security and in poverty reduction. The opportunities and constraints are assessed, by analysing the availability, access and utilisation of production factors. The key message is that enhancing smallholdersâ€™ production capacities and their economic and social resilience may have a positive impact on food security and nutrition at different levels. However, not all smallholders are the same, and assistance strategies need to differentiate between smallholders who should be â€˜moving upâ€™ into more productive systems and those who should be â€˜moving outâ€™ of farming. The choice should depend on the type of constraints smallholders face. The analysis considers, in addition to the role of small farmers as food suppliers, smallholdersâ€™ role as consumers and their level of nutrition security. The link between agriculture and nutrition is analysed to understand how agriculture affects human health and dietary patterns. Given the importance of smallholder farms, strategies to increase productivity in agriculture are essential to improve food and nutrition security, as is food diversity. Finally, synergies and trade-offs between economic, environmental and social objectives and outcomes are analysed through an overview of the methods and tools used to assess food security on small farms at household level. Models at country level are usually focused on long-term conditions, but short-term analyses would also be welcome. Developing global models to assess food security is also relevant, to include trade issues in the analysis. Models at farm household level in developing countries have a valuable role to play in the analysis of the impact of any policy on small farmers.

Food and nutrition security and role of smallholder farms: challenges and opportunities - Workshop proceedings

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Food and nutrition security and role of smallholder farms: challenges and opportunities - Workshop proceedings