New drought tolerant maize varieties, for example, are already benefiting more than two million smallholder farmers in Africa.

Three quarters of the world s poorest people get their food and income from farming small plots of land, and most of these smallholder farmers are women.

Indeed, smallholder farmers are often extremely efficient producers per hectare, and can contribute to a country s economic growth and food security.

In Africa, most food is produced by women smallholder farmers.

If smallholders compete in the same markets as the large farms, they lose.

For example, Vietnam transformed itself from a food deficit country to the second largest rice exporter in the world by developing its smallholder farming sector.

Investment in agriculture in Africa must focus on creating a dynamic smallholder sector.

In the other parts of the country a small population of Sami hunters, fishermen and small scale farmers lived.

We should consider not only how to improve the ability of smallholder farmers to grow food we also must strengthen their ability to participate in markets, while improving the way those markets function.

It should come as no wonder that smallholders and agricultural laborers represent a combined 70 of those who are unable to feed themselves today.

Moreover, large companies should use their global supply chains to empower their workforces and women smallholder farmers.

In the past, agricultural development has prioritized large scale, capitalized forms of agriculture, neglecting smallholders who feed local communities.

Even if smallholders are able to produce a surplus, their lack of access to downstream activities, such as processing and marketing, prevents them from selling it easily.

Each link in the value chain, from the smallholder to the local trade agents and agro processors to regional and national markets, needs to be strengthened.

If smallholder farmers are to be given the opportunity to become viable businesses, it is essential that they be connected to markets.

In Haiti, and in developing countries around the world, smallholder farmers can contribute to food security and economic growth just as they did in Vietnam.

He stressed the importance of microfinance and social capital formulation, which could alleviate risks to smallholders exposed to crop failure, business failure and land degradation.

But supporting that smallholder in launching a farming business that could generate a five fold increase in income amounts to poverty eradication.

I say she because the majority of small scale farmers in Africa are women.

At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), we believe that farming, regardless of size or scale, must be seen as a business, and smallholder farmers as small scale business owners rather than poor people who need handouts.

The rise in food prices is leading to a land grab, as powerful politicians sell foreign investors massive tracts of farmland, brushing aside the traditional land rights of poor smallholders.

The panellist from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture said that agricultural smallholders were in fact private sector actors, not aid recipients.

There was the alienation of smallholders property, in what was known as the enclosure movement. And there were complaints about urban pollution and inhumane factory conditions in what William Blake called Britain s dark Satanic mills.

Smallholders, by contrast, produce at a higher cost. They are often very productive by hectare, since they maximize the use of the soil, and achieve the best complementary use of plants and animals.

In third world countries, smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming.

ROME Recently, I was on a road in the Southern Choma District of Zambia to meet with Rosemary Pisani, a smallholder farmer and mother of eight who struggled to feed her children prior to joining a farmer s cooperative to raise goats.

And if you fill the cup with local agriculture from small farmers, you have a transformative effect.

As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient, smallholdings may persist as a legacy of historical land ownership practices.

Fields with water buffalos and rice paddies abound, and the hilly countryside is criss crossed with farmer s fields and small traditional wooden houses.

Assistance to non governmental organizations should be expanded, and US assistance also should be targeted toward small farmers and small and medium sized businesses.

Again, gathering together farmers, gathering together stakeholders in East Africa to get standards for organic produce. Better prices.

Financing of services in this area is made by contributions from salaries of the employed, from contribution from salaries of employers, contribution from farmers, and budgetary transfers for some categories of population.

In addition, they represent 54 per cent of the country's microlevel entrepreneurs (175,000 women).

The economy will have a simple structure in the coming years, with most economic activities focused in five sectors smallholder, or peasant, agriculture reconstruction port services and light manufacturing local small scale trade and public services, including health care and education.

Agricultural development efforts should, therefore, focus on promoting the growth and sustainability of smallholder farmers and small rural businesses.

According to press reports, the Territory now imports large amounts of organic food and organically grown produce.

Additionally, about one third of small business operators in Australia are now women.

Its membership consists of growers, product marketing organizations and growers' cooperatives, food manufacturers and retailers.

One cornerstone of the project was smallholder farmers, meaning peasant farm families in Africa, Latin America, and Asia working farms of around one hectare (2.5 acres) or less.

Indeed, half of the world s smallholders are women, and we must keep in mind their punishing task of walking long lengths to get their produce to market.

There is growing recognition that these smallholder farmers and their rural communities are a major part of the solution to food insecurity and poverty but only if they have what they need to do their jobs.

They may please farmers and other interest groups, but overall they simply drive up costs and reduce already minimal benefits.

If smallholder farmers have the basic infrastructure they need to get their goods to market, they will not only be able to feed themselves and their communities, but will contribute to wider food security.

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NEW YORK The G 8 s 20 billion initiative on smallholder agriculture, launched at the group s recent summit in L Aquila, Italy, is a potentially historic breakthrough in the fight against hunger and extreme poverty.