GAR on how to develop smallholder communities that thrive

Gotz Martin, head of sustainability implementation, Golden Agri-Resources, talks with Ian Welsh about what future sustainable smallholder farmer communities will look like, and the challenges for business in helping create them.

Martin argues that a critical step is greater investment in education to increase capacity and create a local economic platform that is attractive and self-sustaining. Only through making existing farms viable, with better planting and techniques, and more crop diversity, will the temptation to encroach into currently forested lands subside. They also debate the pros and cons of the landscape approach.