Small-scale farming in the Caribbean plays a significant role in the agriculture sector as thousands of persons and families depend on it for a livelihood, but at the same time it is contributing significantly to agricultural output, especially with respect to cash crops. It is therefore imperative that utmost attention and support be given to small farmers as they face many challenges and difficulties which will sharply heighten as the effects of climate change become more pronounced. And in an era of liberalisation of trade and free markets, their task is not being made easier.
Peter M. Rosset, Ph.D, in his paper: “The Multiple Functions and Benefits of Small Farm Agriculture In the Context of Global Trade Negotiations” notes: “The ongoing process of trade liberalization —now being taken a step further in the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations for the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) —has already had dramatically negative effects on small farmers everywhere. The AoA has the potential to severely undercut the remaining viability of small farm production, with potentially devastating consequences for rural economies and environments worldwide. I conclude with a call to recognize the true multi-functional role and value of small farmers, and to unite in opposition to an AoA that might make their continued existence impossible.”
Arguing in favour of small farmers, Rosset makes a strong case for small- scale farming.
“If small farms are worth preserving —if indeed a small farm model of rural development makes more sense than does the large-scale, mechanized, chemical intensive, corporate dominated and socially excluding model toward which business-as-usual is carrying us—then now is the time to act.”
“The first point worth noting is that while small farmers have been driven out of rural America by the millions, and we have seen a similar, though lesser rural-urban migration in the Third World, the fact is that family farmers do still persist in the U.S. and continue to be numerically dominant. In the Third World they are central to the production of staple foods. The prediction of their demise continues to be premature, though their numbers have dropped substantially and they face new threats to their livelihoods on an unprecedented scale.”
“The second point is that small farms are far from being as unproductive or inefficient as so many would have us believe. Peasants have stubbornly clung to the land despite more than a century of harsh policies which have undercut their economic viability.”
“The third point is that small farms have multiple functions which benefit both society and the biosphere, and which contribute far more than just a particular commodity—though there is ample evidence that a small farm model for agricultural development could produce far more food than a large farm pattern ever could. These multiple and beneficial functions should be seriously valued and considered before we blithely accept yet another round of anti-small farm policy measures—this time at the level of the global economy. It is toward the second and third points—the benefits of small farms, that I direct the bulk of this paper.”
On this note therefore, it was encouraging to see a workshop organised by the Caribbean Farmers Network  on production and marketing planning for linking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) small farmers to markets in the region and well as farther afield.
Our Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud, said the workshop was occurring against a backdrop of food insecurity and escalating food import bills among countries within the region and called for practical steps to link small farmers to regional and extra-regional markets which will ensure that the momentum developed in recent years, bringing agriculture from the back burner to the front burner of regional thinking is maintained and farmers retain the prominence they deserve.
The minister is correct and one would hope that this forum does not become another talk shop but would lead to practical, tangible steps to help small farmers who desperately need help, particularly with respect to markets which are a trouble spot for many of them.