Agricultural participation, farm typologies and sustainable rural livelihood framework

CIRAD’s contribution

SDG 2016: What should be the role of agriculture in this context?

Goal 1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere Goal 1: Eradicate extreme and reduce by half poverty

Goal 1.3: Social protection

Goal 1.4: Access to basic services

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture Goal 2.1 & 2.2: Food access and nutritional outcomes (undernourishment, food insecurity,

stunting and malnutrition)

Goal 2.3: Small holders labor productivity and production, resilient agriculture practises

Goal 2.5 Genetic diversity (cultivated plants, domesticated animals and associated wild)

Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls Goal 5a: Women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and

control over land, financial services, inheritance and natural resources

In the current context agriculture is at the core of a polarized debate we can present through two main narratives

Narrative of market oriented agricultural systems

Agriculture is an economic activity as any other economic activity

Markets are the key driver and the agricultural sector will transform accordingly through dedicated policies enhancing its productivity

The consequence is a normative development pathway: an strong increase in labor productivity and a sharp decrease in the labour force in agriculture

a shift towards specialised farming systems and production structures’ concentration

more and more integrated and international markets of inputs (including services) and products

the fading of the family nature of the farm, replaced by a diversity of arrangements

The development of combination of investments (capital) and hired labour

Narrative of resilient agro-food systems

Agriculture is a mode of living (“mode de vie”, Mauss)

Farming systems are diversified

Production is not a mere commodity sold in an undefined market: self-consumption,

interpersonal exchanges and social capital

ecological services

Agriculture is most often combined with off-farm and non-farm activities and migrations

The consequences for agriculture contribution to SDGs A sharp attention to labour and decent jobs creation in a wide diversity of farms models

A need for opening the vision to entire food systems

A need for cross-cutting analysis and policies

Challenge: combining narratives & visions

Globally, the situation is a strong process of market integration But for most agricultural sectors, market integration works poorly

But in most of developing countries (in SSA and South Asia), the demographic and employment challenge requires others options

But even in developed and industrialized countries, the unsustainability of concentrated agricultures and food systems requires to rethink alternative models

Everywhere, reshaping sustainable ways of farming is high on the agenda

The shift will require: a new approach to agricultural labour

a deep rethinking of the processing side

more attention to decentralized agri-food businesses

Experience only illuminates the past pathways

Modernization needs a deep rethinking to avoid dead-ends

Agricultural activity vs agriculture as a profession

In many situations / countries (even in developed countries): pluriactivity is the norm and not an exception

Pluriactivity exists at individual and household level

As a consequence: The issue of threshold is not so important when considering agriculture as an activity

Threshold are not relevant when tackling globally food and nutrition security

Considering agriculture as an activity is in line with SDG n°2, 1.3 and 5A

If agriculture has a role to play in meeting SDG, all kind of agricultural activity has to be part of the picture, either in rural, peri-urban or urban settings

30% incomes to define a farmer make sense for designing market oriented agriculture policies… not for measuring agriculture activity contribution to SDGs

Farms typologies: the type of labor as a key discriminating factor

Corporate forms Family business forms Family forms

The rationale for choosing labour

To be able to count family farms and others

Analytical definition which leaves the political and policy choice to the policy makers: we just argue that it is important to count for an accurate weighing of the different categories

Labour is the main « engine » of farming at world level: it deserves more attention in the official data sets (2/3 of farms in a world remain manual, less than 3% are motorized)

Labour is especially important to understand family farms functionnings Social protection issues and policy linkages

Human capital as an investment

Exploring family farms diversity with alternative criteria

Exploring family farms diversity with alternative criteria

A need for local/national typologies, but with relevant and mesurable criteria

A need for indicators and criteria allowing scalling-up to regional and international level

The SRL framework

Compatible with family farms understanding

Useful because it allows considering agriculture and non- agricultural activities

It includes the « organisational and institutional dimension »: that can influence the capabilities of each individual member of the HH and of the HH as a whole

It clearly separates « assets » and outcomes

Regarding RuLIS proposal, the categories can be expanded to include collective or public goods / services available in the environment

A suggestion is to revisit the original SRL framework…

The SRLframework