The role of organic entrepreneurship and innovation for poverty alleviation and development

Summary in the original language of the document

Agricultural production from small farms is currently meeting the food needs of one-third of the world population. Agriculture in Asia is characterized by small holders of farmland with an average size of less than 2 hectares (80% of total farms). These small-scale farmers are challenged by increasing cost of production and decreasing profitability. They cannot afford high input agriculture, such as available chemical solutions for their crops and therefore, by default, most of them are operating as organic farmers but yet they are not fully organic. There is ample opportunity to help these marginal farms become fully organic and in turn profitable enterprises by introducing organic farming practices. To do this there is a need for policies and strategies which are pro-poor and pro-organic. Millions of small farm enterprises could be included in larger scale organic farming which would give producers profit from agriculture and transform them from subsistence to more viable farming enterprises.
Poverty remains an enormous problem worldwide with over 800 million people in Asia alone living in abject poverty with nearly 20 million children either malnourished or undernourished. Reducing poverty, in all forms, is the greatest challenge for the developing countries and for the international community. Of the world’s 6 billion people, 1.2 billion live on less than one dollar a day and 2.8 billion live on less than two dollars day. The population of Bangladesh which is below the poverty line is 31.51% according to HIES-2010 (BBS, 2011) with a majority of rural households being functionally landless. To address these challenges, what is needed includes: concerted public-private partnership supported by innovative policies and strategies; the development of supportive markets; standards for organic production; and value chain development. Such changes would contribute to poverty alleviation far more effectively than conventional agricultural intervention projects, such as subsidies, mechanization or high input agricultural practices.