Smallholder Agriculture
A smallholding is a farm of small size.
In third world countries, smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient, smallholdings may persist as a legacy of historical land ownership practices. In more affluent societies smallholdings may be valued primarily for the rural lifestyle that they provide. Often, the owners do not earn their livelihood from the farm. There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in the world, supporting almost 2 billion people. Today some companies try to include smallholdings into their value chain. They provide them with seed, feed or fertilizer to improve there production. This model shows benefits for both parties.
Read more about Smallholder Agriculture: Smallholdings in Britain, Hobby Farms in Australia, Lifestyle Blocks in New Zealand, Third World Usage
Famous quotes containing the word agriculture:
“But the nomads were the terror of all those whom the soil or the advantages of the market had induced to build towns. Agriculture therefore was a religious injunction, because of the perils of the state from nomadism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)