Strategic management (STM) is recognized as an important element for firms’ success; however, small firms, especially in agribusiness, have widely been overlooked because it is often thought that a systematic STM is exclusively for large corporate firms. Firms engage in STM practices such as environmental analysis, formulation of mission and vision statements, strategic planning, implementation, evaluation, etc., regardless of their size.
Humanity is faced with the challenge of ensuring food security for all, while respecting the earth’s ecological boundaries. Organic agriculture makes a valuable contribution here. In Africa, certified organic farming is limited to just 0.2 percent of agricultural land – compared to all other continents, the smallest share worldwide. The potential for expanding organic agriculture is great, because it is economically viable in the long term, preserves human, animal and environmental health and conserves soil resources.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is the production of plants, fish, insects, or animals inside structures such as greenhouses, vertical farms, and growth chambers, in which environmental parameters such as humidity, light, temperature and CO2 can be controlled to create optimal growing conditions.
Agrifood value chains of small and medium-sized producers in the Near East and North Africa region have the potential to generate more value through improved access to high-value markets. Limited logistics capacity in the region, coupled with lack of access to continuous cold chain, has resulted in weak supply chain management, high level of food loss, lack of compliance with food quality and safety standards; information asymmetries; and unfair value distribution, affecting income and livelihood of small and medium-sized producers.
The important role that small farms play in supporting rural livelihoods, conserving biodiversity and maintaining traditional landscapes, rural traditions and cultural heritage is widely accepted. Nevertheless, they are often under the radar of the agriculture policy mechanisms, which tend to focus on the very large farms and globally driven food chains.
Es ampliamente aceptado el importante papel que desempeñan las pequeñas explotaciones agrícolas en el apoyo a los medios de vida rurales, la conservación de la biodiversidad y el mantenimiento de los paisajes tradicionales, las tradiciones rurales y el patrimonio cultural. Sin embargo, a menudo pasan desapercibidos para los mecanismos de política agrícola, que tienden a centrarse en las explotaciones agrícolas muy grandes y en las cadenas alimentarias impulsadas a nivel mundial.
This document collects a series of fact sheets realized under the EU-funded SALSA project, which is aimed to understand how small farms and food businesses contribute to sustainable food and nutrition security (FNS).
The research findings in the fact sheets concern 30 reference regions from countries in Europe and Africa. For each region, we present:
● The regional indicators on the concentration and spatial distribution of small farms (SF), obtained also with support of the Sentinel-2 satellite data
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).