Small-scale farmers–

Small-holding farmers play a major role in food security and productivity worldwide.  A large no. of farmers comes under the category of small and marginal farmers these farmers are about 86 % of the total farmers in our country.

Agriculture progressed in technology in the last decades, but these advancements have not always been economically available for small and medium farm operations.

Small-scale farmers are encountering numerous challenges, worsened by climate change, a growing population, water scarcity and soil degradation.

Small-scale farmers encounter various challenges.

1. Small land holdings–

The major challenge for small-scale farmers is fragmented land so they can’t efficiently use the machinery on land and they depend on their family Labor and resources to produce food grains and other agricultural commodities. Smallholding farmers’ land cultivated less than 5 acres (less than 2 hac), they cultivated primarily one crop or different crop throughout the year depending on season and Lack of sufficient funds for market requirements.

1. Lack of sufficient funds-

Banks and finance institutions may have difficulties lending to small-scale farmers, investing in farms and generating enterprises because they have very small areas as a comparison to big farmers banks don’t to take risks so they escape lending to these types of farmers.

1. Limited access to technology-

Mostly small-scale farmers are poor they haven’t enough capital to purchase expensive agricultural implements so cultivate the lands with their available resources this lack of things may also exacerbate the condition of small farmers.

1. Lack of education and training-

Small-scale farmers mostly live in rural areas where very hard to access new technology and provide training and knowledge about smart farming is difficult due to a lack of facility of education and farmers not interested in new types of farming because they have a lack of awareness.

1. Climate risk-

Climate change is one of the major concerns in agriculture as unpredictable monsoons, heavy rainfall, drought, and attacks of disease and insect pests create major problems in agricultural production.