I think the biggest problem in advancing new ideas or revisiting previous failures with objectivity has been failure to acknowledge that better results could come out of such mistakes with positive realisation. We need to go further and ask, why it succeed or not! I also do know that there cannot be one bullet answer to this problem because it is context specific, even in one country like Uganda for that matter. But the most pressing point for me is that we should as much as possible avoid creating a new situation or mass displacement of rural people - which might be more overwhelming - by failing to solve it when we can.
The strategy is to diversify farming with non-farm incomes - hence, balancing small and "commercial farming", which can also provide off-farm wages to farming households. It also means making smallholders more efficient. I am sure that most so-called subsistence farmers actually produce more for the markets instead of home consumption. Most civil servants working in Africa do not live on their wages or salaries alone and so will the rural farmers!
So: context specificity is critical as well as acknowledging that whatever options that is preferred, it will not make the affected worse off than they are before the project, especially in the medium-to long run.
I think the biggest problem in advancing new ideas or revisiting previous failures with objectivity has been failure to acknowledge that better results could come out of such mistakes with positive realisation. We need to go further and ask, why it succeed or not! I also do know that there cannot be one bullet answer to this problem because it is context specific, even in one country like Uganda for that matter. But the most pressing point for me is that we should as much as possible avoid creating a new situation or mass displacement of rural people - which might be more overwhelming - by failing to solve it when we can.
The strategy is to diversify farming with non-farm incomes - hence, balancing small and "commercial farming", which can also provide off-farm wages to farming households. It also means making smallholders more efficient. I am sure that most so-called subsistence farmers actually produce more for the markets instead of home consumption. Most civil servants working in Africa do not live on their wages or salaries alone and so will the rural farmers!
So: context specificity is critical as well as acknowledging that whatever options that is preferred, it will not make the affected worse off than they are before the project, especially in the medium-to long run.