The EU-funded SALSA project set out to examine a potentially very important role of small farms – their contribution to food security.
The main challenge for African food systems in the future will be to provide food for a rapidly growing population with changing diets and food preferences. Whilst the population of Europe is decreasing, with consumers demanding food that is produced in an environmentally and socially responsible way, Africa’s population will more than double between 2020 and 2050, with food demand increasing even more as a result of dietary changes.
Small farms in Northern Europe are found alongside some of the largest - and in some cases, most industrialised - farms in the whole of Europe.
SALSA is an EU Horizon 2020 project that set out to assess the current and future role of small farms and related small food businesses (suppliers, processors, distributors) in achieving sustainable Food and Nutrition Security (FNS). SALSA studied small farms in 30 reference regions in 20 countries - 25 regions (at the so-called NUTS3 administrative level) in Europe and 5 regions in Africa.
The EU-funded Horizon 2020 “Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security” (SALSA) project has brought together 16 partners, from European and African countries and the UN system, who have a unique blend of multidisciplinary expertise and experience from a wide range of geographical and socio-political realities.
SALSA has aimed to provide a better understanding of the current and potential contribution of small farms and food businesses to sustainable Food and Nutrition Security (FNS).
In recent years, much has been accomplished to develop the small livestock subsector in Rwanda. The Livestock Master Plan (LMP) 2017–2022 and the Fourth Strategic Plan for Agricultural Transformation (PSTA 4) 2018–2024 have proposed and attracted investments that have improved productivity of small livestock value chains including better piggery and poultry genetics, feeds and health services. However, this subsector still faces many problems related to policy and the enabling environment.
If the world is to transition towards agrifood systems that are more sustainable and equitable, small-scale production systems will be key to progress. Large parts of the world depend on small-scale systems for maintaining food security and nutrition (Lowder, Sánchez and Bertini, 2021; Herrero et al., 2017). Despite this centrality, neither small-scale production systems nor small-scale producers have received due recognition under predominant agrifood systems paradigms.
While smallholder farmers are the primary food producers in Southern Africa, contributing to 90 percent of food production in some countries, often systems in the region do not support profitability for them. WFP is working across Southern Africa to address bottlenecks in food systems to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers. This factsheet gives an overview of WFP’s approach to smallholder farmers.
SOUTIEN À L’ADAPTATION AUX CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES AU MALI On s’attend à ce que les changements climatiques provoquent de plus en plus d’événements extrêmes (sécheresses et inondations) au Mali, rendant la production de cultures et l’élevage plus difficiles pour les agriculteurs et réduisant ainsi la sécurité alimentaire et les revenus des plus pauvres du pays.
This book collects 24 stories of change from the EU-funded CDAIS project. Launched in 2015, the overall objective of CDAIS is to make agricultural innovation systems more efficient and sustainable in meeting the demands of farmers, agri-business and consumers. The stories are about the eight pilot countries - in Africa, Asia and Latin America - in which CDAIS operates. Countries and title of the 24 stories are provided below, with date of last update for each story.
Angola:
01) From farm to agri-business (February 2018)