BACKGROUND

With most indicators suggesting that we have already reached the worldwide limit of arable land, and with current population projections predicting an additional two billion people by 2050, experts feel we are rapidly approaching an impending food crisis where production simply cannot meet demand. 

One option is to accelerate the cutting of forests to clear land for more large-scale industrialized farming. But given that it takes roughly one acre of cleared forest to feed one more person, the effect of clearing two billion acres of forest on climate change would be devastating.

There is at least one other option in the form of an innovative experiment that has proven to significantly increase food production while at the same time increasing tree cover rather than reducing it. The story begins in one of the most unlikely places—rural Haiti—with an organization we founded called the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA).

The two of us set out to plant trees in a country with one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world. Haiti, once covered in dense tropical forests, now has less than two percent tree cover. When we asked the Timberland company to sponsor a program that paid farmers to plant trees, the answer was “yes… but on the condition that you can show how it will be sustainable after our funding stops.” 

That question forced us to come up with a business case for planting trees. The solution was to combine reforestation with one of Haiti’s other major issues, namely the very low yields of smallholder farmers. We made planting trees a way to earn better seeds, tools and training so that crop yields went up by an average of 40%, farm input costs went down and household incomes increased an average of 50%. The result is a market-based approach to produce more food and by growing more trees. In addition to the resulting agroforestry cooperatives, we have added microfinance support for women farmers, established a farmer field school, created farm businesses and begun exporting agricultural products. 

Five million trees and 3,200 farmer-members later—with the help of Timberland and the Clinton Foundation—the model is ready for expansion in Haiti and abroad. Given that the SFA is a Haiti-based organization with a domestic focus, a new organization called Impact Farming has been created to carry this message beyond Haiti’s borders.

The world’s largest under-performing agricultural asset is the 2.5 billion people who live and work on 500 million smallholder family farms. Each with less than five acres (roughly two hectares), these farmers constitute one third of the entire global population and currently produce 70% of our food on 60% of the earth’s arable land. But as in Haiti, most are functioning at well under half their capacity and together represent the majority of the poorest and hungriest people in the world.

The Impact Farming organization was created to work with smallholder farmers throughout the developing world to advance business solutions that integrate sustainable food production with increased tree cover.  

While smallholder farmers are emerging globally as the new food and forestry frontier, the Haiti experience has shown that they are also uniquely positioned to be leaders in addressing other important issues. Deploying organic principles in the process of growing more food and more trees helps restore the environment and reduce climate change. If women farmers are supported along the way, this has been shown to further increase overall yields at the same time as improving life for women and girls. Increased household income is a major contributing factor to higher rates of school attendance. And an overall improvement in rural economies attracts young people to stay and not migrate in such numbers to urban areas that are ill equipped to provide enough job opportunities.

With a bit of help, smallholder farmers can use an entrepreneurial model to transform families, communities and local economies…    and end up changing the world.

PROGRAMS

Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA): Impact Farming supports the Haiti-based SFA  to apply business solutions to help feed and reforest a renewed Haiti by establishing market-based farmer cooperatives, building agricultural export markets, creating rural farm businesses and contributing to community development.

Support for Women Farmers: Simply put, if you don’t weight overall support to smallholders in favor of women farmers you are not going to get full value for your investment. That is not to suggest that support should be provided to women only, because that causes its own dysfunction. But supporting women to achieve an equal status with male farmers—and with equal access to resources—has been shown to increase farm yields by 20 to 30 percent, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Impact Farming is initially pursuing this initiative through its support of the SFA.