SMALL FARMER DEVELOPMENT - EXPERIENCES OF COMMONWEALTH DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

Small farmer development initiatives of commonwealth developing countries were reviewed to evaluate the magnitude and dimensions of the problem, the impact of on-going development projects on small farmers and to identify appropriate strategies for small farmer development. Small farmers, sharing 61% to 86% farming households and 8% to 26% of the total arable land of a country, pose a devastating problem in countries where their growth rate is higher than population growth rate. The discriminating mechanisms of ongoing development programmes may have hastened pauperization resulting in this high growth rate of small farmers. The lack of clear definition, differentiation, a system of pre-identification and registration of small farmers and a selective-client technology-diffusion approach of extension systems are some of the constraints of implementing development programmes. Their impact on small farmers was therefore reported to be poor, unsatisfactory or disappointing in most developing countries. However, some positive results were reported in India because of her growth-cum-beneficiary oriented strategy with the focus of all programme benefits in favour of the smaller and poorest farmers. A strong coordinating body and a nation-wide programme need to be commissioned for small farmer development with a shift from technology-diffusion selective-farmer systems, to the problem-solving all-farmer approach of the rural extension system.