The enduring importance of small farmers across the globe.

WHILE advanced and emerging economies are noteworthy for their myriad differences, it is often instructive to highlight ways in which the wealthy North and the developing South are actually quite alike.

For example, the small family farmer rightly has pride of place in both the developed and developing worlds. He is a crucial engine of growth, dignity and prosperity.

Small farmers have played an important role in every nation’s economic and social development. They constitute the vital and indispensible core of every agricultural system, from Malaysia and other emerging markets in South-East Asia to Europe and North America.

Cog in the wheel: Farmers collecting oil palm fruits in Hulu Selangor in this Feb 22 filephoto. Small farmers form the core of every agricultural system and they contribute to the food and nutritional needs of the world. — Reuterspic

The history of economic progress shows that even as agricultural production gets more sophisticated and more technologically advanced, small farmers remain crucial stakeholders and participants in food production and job creation.

Consider Malaysian small farmers today. Many of them toil on land no larger than 40ha. They harvest fresh fruit bunches and other commodities on an ongoing basis throughout the entire year. In doing so, they contribute directly to the food and nutritional needs of the world population, just as large, multinational agri-businesses do.

We see this most clearly in the palm oil industry, the fourth largest contributor to Malaysia’s GNI. While the industry continues to grow and modernise, small farmers are an integral part of the Malaysian palm sector. Both independent and organised small farmers combined manage 40% of land under oil palms. There are more than 240,000 small farmers in Malaysia today.

One of these small farmers is Amad Sidek, who owns a 14ha plantation in Selangor. The income he gets from producing palm oil allows him to provide health care, education, and other needs for his four children.

Amad supplements his income by growing bananas amidst his oil palm trees and selling them at the local market. While he does not need to grow bananas, he recognised the value inherent in banana production and crop diversification and has taken it upon himself to increase the value of his land’s harvest.

All of this income Amad generates from the oil palm, which allows him to properly care for the land and implement good conservation, agricultural and environmental practices.

The central role played by small farmers in Malaysian agriculture is a direct result of the Government’s recognition that supporting small farmers would most effectively reduce poverty. The Government has bolstered that understanding with important programmes.

For instance, small farmers in the oil palm sector are an integral part of Malaysia’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). The Government is committing RM297mil to encourage small farmers to replant ageing oil palms, thereby increasing long-run productivity and efficiency.

For over 30 years, Malaysian small farmers have played an important role in the nation’s economic and cultural life. And that role is set to grow as population and economic growth around the world increases demand for the products of small farmers, particularly palm oil.

The Malaysian Government, alongside the European Union and other governments, are investing significant sums in the development of biomass that will power electricity and transportation systems across the globe. This increases the value not just of the oil extracted from the oil palm, but also in the by-products from the production process. Trading these byproducts in global markets will further increase incomes and the value of oil palm cultivation.

It’s worth noting that palm oil production is also increasingly vital for the health and wellness of the world. This is true for hungry communities in Asia and Africa as well as prosperous communities in Europe and the United States.

Palm oil boasts a vital balance of fatty acids and key nutrients, such as Vitamins E and A, which all individuals need to thrive. Vitamin A is critical to mitigating night-blindness – a devastating condition that afflicts impoverished communities throughout the world. And wealthy consumers in the US and Europe benefit from Vitamin E and its anti-oxidant properties that mitigate breast cancer and protect against neuro-degeneration.

Recent research has found that palm oil is just as healthy as olive oil, which has long been considered one of the healthiest vegetable oils on the market. But palm oil is far more abundant, can be produced on much less land, and is far more affordable than olive oil. These attributes give it a degree of versatility and flexibility that other vegetable oils can’t match.

None of the great successes in the market enjoyed by palm oil is possible without the hard work and dedication of Malaysia’s small farmers like Amad Sidek. It is this story that is often overlooked by the world’s consumers of palm oil, who know little more than the benefits of palm oil’s use. And not only Malaysia’s small farmers, but small farmers throughout the world upon whose labour our world relies.

The small soya farmer in Iowa in the US and the small rapeseed farmer in France play an equally unrecognised role in the global production of the world’s vital foodstuffs.

After all, commercial agriculture relies largely on these small farmers – in Europe, the US and Malaysia – to meet food demand and generate economic prosperity. Perhaps if more of the world realised this fact, opposition to agricultural expansion would not be met with such misguided opposition.

And that leads me to my last point, the certification of small farmers.

Let them be

It is important to recognise the negative impact Western certification requirements can have on the upward mobility of small farmers, not just here in Malaysia, but in Iowa and France, too.

While large companies are able to accommodate the costs of certification like the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), small farmers are, by their definition, not multi-million dollar operations capable of incurring the cost of these NGO-led certification schemes, alone.

So while small farmers are free to pursue certification, such requirements should never be imposed on them by Western governments and NGOs, just as they don’t impose these same non-legislated requirements on soya and rapeseed farmers.

The story of Amad Sidek and his fellow small farmers in Malaysia is one that can be retold throughout the world where every man is allowed to own land and produce food. It is also one that demonstrates where a nation’s wealth originates – in that one sector upon which we all rely.

■ Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron is CEO of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. For more information or comments, e-mail yusof@mpoc.org.my.