Farming Systems and Poverty

Small farmers produce much of the developing world's food. Yet they are generally much poorer than the rest of the population in these countries, and are less food secure than even the urban poor.

In an effort to understand this problem, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Bank initiated a study; this 49-page publication presents the results. The book explores the strategic priorities of specific "farming systems", or "a population of individual farm systems that have broadly similar resource bases, enterprise patterns, household livelihoods and constraints, and for which similar development strategies and interventions would be appropriate". These systems include Sub-saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, east Asia and Pacific, and Latin America and Caribbean. The next section, "Global Challenges, Potentials, and Priorities," contains information on system categories and household strategies, such as the implications of agricultural intensity and access to services. Also included is a global strategy for hunger and poverty reduction. After an analysis of ways to refocus stakeholder contributions, the book concludes with a classification of countries by developing region and maps of each farming system.

To download a copy of the complete publication in PDF or in HTML format (in English, French, or Spanish), visit the Farming Systems Page on the FAO website.