b'INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTLifting Up the Farmer in AgricultureIN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES , being a farmer isntfamilies. This leaves the grandparents and the mothers what most people aspire to be. There is a lot of manualto do all the farm work, who are already overburdened labor involved for not a great amount of economicby the other tasks they must carry out each day. return. The middlemen are actually the most profit- Simple technology made it easier to weed by making able in the chain of food supply. They have completethe task faster, needing less labor units and more control over the pricing that farmers are paid andefficient by not removing that desirable species. When what the manufacturer must pay for a product.we did a budget with these farmers growing finger We saw an example of their power while working amillet, some of them realized that they were growing Plant Breeders Without Borders (PBWOB) project intheir millet at a loss. By making farming methods more Indonesia. Farmers could not afford to apply fertilizer toefficient they were able make the crops more efficient Bambara groundnut at sowing. The middleman offeredto grow with one labor unit. ANTHONY LEDDINto pay for the fertilizer, but unfortunately, the farmer wasMaking farmers more profitable is the greatest Inspired afterlocked in to selling their seed to that specific middlemanchallenge that agriculture has in developing countries. reading Theat harvest. Normally, the farmer would get higher prices,This was a trend that took a long time to occur in the Coming Famine,higher prices by forcing the middleman to bid againstWestern world, but now here in Australia we are seeing this Australianothers to buy their seed, but instead, ended up beingyoung men and women leaving their jobs in the cities plant breeder settrapped by the middleman to accept their lower offerto come back to the farms. How can we speed up this out to make afor their seed. On top of that, the farmer still had to payprocess in developing countries? It is really a question difference. Plantback the middleman for the fertilizer. of supply and demand. Breeders WithoutOne of the key components in holding farmers backAs demand for food increases due to increas-Borders encouragesin developing countries is the lack of technology. Donting population and supply decreases due to climate plant breeders andthink of high-cost equipment such as things like GPSchange and people leaving farms for the cities, we students to volunteerequipment, but think instead of lacking simpler tech- will see an increase in the profit that farmers make. their time for inter- nology such as single row seed sowing equipment.Increases in farm technology will also make farming national breedingWhile working on a PBWOB project in Nepal, one ofeasier, encouraging people to take it up as a career. projects. the species that we were working on was finger millet.More equal sharing of profits to farmers along the This crop was hand sown by farmers. Because the spe- supply chain in developing countries is also needed. cies was slower to germinate than some of the weedsInitiatives such as fair trade see Western companies in this environment, there was a lot of labor time thatand consumers making sure that farmers are getting a was required to hand weed the crops. Weeding isntbetter margin for the product that they grow. Another a fun job at any time, but weeding in the hot sun of away to improve farmer profitability is the formation of tropical environment is hard work. To help, we intro- grower co-operatives. Smallholder farmers can pool duced farmers to the Earthway single row planter. Bytheir produce to find markets that will give them a sowing in equally spaced rows, farmers could use otherbetter price. Co-operatives can also pool money so equipment, such as hoes, to safely remove weedsthat new technology can be purchased and shared between rows without the risk of hoeing out the that will allow their farmers to be more profitable and desirable species.sustainable.Although this seems basic, this made a massiveFarming doesnt have to be seen as a poor persons difference to the farmers there. Many people from ruraltrade. As food demand increases above supply, farm-areas in Nepal, especially the young and the males, goers will be more valued in society and will be compen-to the cities to find work to send money back to theirsated more for what they deserve. SW60/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2021'