Smallholder farmers currently produce more than 50% of the world’s food and contribute significantly to national GDP in developing countries by producing commodities such as cotton, sunflower, groundnut, coffee and cocoa. Unfortunately, these farmers remain poor as they rarely profit from cash cropping. The main reasons for this are the high costs of inputs, restricted access to markets, limited ability to negotiate fair prices and a lack of understanding of the importance of keeping records to calculate the profitability of their enterprise .
Subsistence farmers who cannot make a living from the land are forced to re-locate into urban areas, in the search for a better life. However, they are ill-equipped to compete in the jobs market and are thus likely to end up living in slum conditions. Already more than half of the world’s population inhabits urban areas and 180, 000 people are moving from rural areas to cities each day - that's 125 per minute. One billion of these people are stuck in slums – a figure that is expected to double by 2030. Slum dwellers are subject to on-going poverty, increased disease, drug dependency and violence. Furthermore, each farming family that vacates the land looses their community interdependence, distinct cultural values, essential farming skills that have been passed down over countless generations and changes from being self-reliant in food to being dependent on imported food.
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