Posted on October, 18, 2022 at 10:10 am
In Ghana, a third-generation farmer named Afi grows cocoa and cassava on a small, three-hectare plot of land. He earns less than $1 a day, however, a study of cocoa farmers in the region estimates that he would need at least $5.81 a day to afford a decent and dignified standard of living: enough to afford acceptable housing, feed his family, send his children to school, and cover his farming costs. Despite working a minimum of six hours most days, he has no savings and is unable to invest in improving his farm. Four of his five children work rather than attending school to help the family get by. At the same time, the family faces serious effects of climate change, including prolonged drought and reduced soil fertility. Understandably, not one of Afi’s children sees a future in farming.
The World Bank estimates that there are 500 million smallholder farming households globally, comprising upward of 2 billion people. Though these farms are small, typically under two hectares, their cumulative impact is large. Smallholder farmers produce at least a third of the global food supply. And though these small farms contribute little in the way of greenhouse gas emissions, they bear the brunt of climate impacts.
Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review