Just like the operators of large-scale plantations, small-scale farmers in Southeast Asia chop down rain forests to plant oil palm trees, says a study led by a researcher from Lund University in Sweden. “For the great majority of small farmers, chopping down diverse forests and investing in a single species of tree – monoculture – is the simplest and quickest path out of poverty,” says the researcher Yann Clough.
In a release, the university says results of the study, which included interviews with 450 small-scale farmers, contradict the traditional view that small scale agriculture is environmentally friendly. Small farmers cultivate a larger portion of land in Indonesian forests than large landowners. The study says while small farmers boosted their incomes, biodiversity decreased and the use of fertilizer led to nitrate runoff.
“Since the small farmers earn more with monoculture, sustainability aspects and the effects on nature currently are almost entirely unheeded,” said Clough. “Changing the production methods of small farmers requires financial incentives along with political will; otherwise there is a risk that rich and productive agricultural land will have disappeared altogether in 20 years.”