Most farmers grow small plots of rice, often without machinery or fertiliser.
Some settle in cities, but most are allocated small plots of land in government-managed settlements, where the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCRR) and its partners provide some healthcare and welfare services; they get materials to build basic homes on their plots.
Most settlement occurs on small plots of land between mountains.
In 1789 French peasants still owned about one-third of the arable land, most of it in small plots of less than 10 acres (4 hectares); nobles owned about one-fifth of the land, the church one-sixth, and bourgeois landlords about one-third.
About 40% of the gross national product of African countries flows from agriculture, and about 70% of African workers are employed in agriculture, most of them on small plots of land.
They had chosen this area, they said, because it was among the most impoverished they could find — most people grew vegetables on small plots, lived in dirt-floored houses and worked sporadically at informal jobs.
Data compiled by the UN and research institutes known as CGIAR indicate that by 2030 there will be about one billion people producing food -- most of them working on small plots, keeping animals on marginal lands, or fishing with simple vessels.
So his organization, Yachana Foundation, is distributing high-quality cacao seedlings to encourage farmers to manage small plots that leave most of the jungle intact.
Imported fertiliser could make even tiny plots productive, but most small farmers cannot afford to buy it, and donors are sending less of it free.
Despite this, for the 2 billion people making less than $2 a day – many of whom live in rural areas where resource-poor farmers cultivate small plots of land – most can't afford to buy food.
