Tony Simons, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), provided food for thought when he commented that when it comes to agroforestry systems, “the largest producer and the actual day-to-day business person making it happen is the small-scale farmer. The 500 million smallholders of the developing world are the real and the hidden private sector that need better recognition and nurturing.”
He continued: “Agroforestry systems and practices are well-recognized for having high environmental and high social value but less well known for their financial remuneration. This misconception though was blown away for us with the presentations [at the World Congress on Agroforestry 2014 in Delhi, India] from the top-profile business panel comprising Howard Shapiro (MARS), Bernard Giraud (Livelihoods Venture & DANONE), Tristan Le Comte (PurProject), Shri Krishna Byre Gowda (Chief Minister Agriculture, Karnataka) and Ranjit Barthakur (Tata Consulting Services).”
To find out the top 10 things that we must do in order to render agroforestry systems and practices socially, environmentally AND financially tenable, read Dr. Tony Simons’ complete blog entry here:
http://www.wca2014.org/the-small-scale-farmer-is-the-priv…