From Policy Aims and Small-Farm Characteristics to Farm Science Needs

2. Given what we know about how farms become and stay efficient, competitive, and poverty-reducing, what type of technical progress helps them do so—and is any type harmful? 3. How can research lead to more of the “helpful” technical progress and less of the “harmful” sort—or, to disaggregate the question, what kind of research might improve smallholder access, or returns, to key inputs (water, seeds, fertilizer, and pest management)? If policy analysts know that, it helps them to decide what incentives, and to whom, will get appropriate research done. 4. Do the answers to the last two questions depend on changing global market requirements? In particular, can technical progress “for small farms”—so far largely about production—respond to, or keep pace with, post-harvest changes (e.g., the rise of supermarkets) that challenge the foundation of small and family farms’ competitiveness: relatively low unit transaction costs of labor?