for instance in countries such as china and india which despite having invested heavily in rural development are home to most of the worlds undernourished people the areas most vulnerable to food insecurity often contend with poor natural conditions and fragile ecologies xiao and nie m s swaminathan research foundation and world food programme while there is an emerging consensus among international organizations regarding the importance of strengthening the role of small farm holders in order to ensure the achievement of greater food security effective policies need to be in place to secure the viability of small farm holders particularly in view of intensification of international competition and strengthening of marketing chains and quality standards and natural resource degradation hazell and others small farm holders not only tend to make more intensive use of land and labour but also face lower transaction costs for labour in northern zambia for instance labourrich households have higher incomes but they also cause the most deforestation holden