PERU fishing with guts to report…
Nine out of ten of the 570 million farms in the world are run by families, with family farms, the dominant element in agriculture, and therefore an agent for change that can be critical to achieving sustainable food security and eradicate hunger in the future, according to a new UN report released today.
Family farms produce about 80 percent of the world's food. This dominance and production means that “are vital to solving the problem of hunger” afflicting over 800 million people, says the FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in the introduction to the new FAO report on the State of Food and Agriculture 2014 (SOFA acronym ).
Family farms are also the custodians of 75 percent of all global agricultural resources, and is therefore key to improving the ecological and resource sustainability. Also among the most vulnerable to the consequences of resource depletion and climate change.
While evidence shows excellent performances in the lands managed by family farmers, many small farms can not produce enough to provide decent livelihoods for families.
Family farming is thus confronted with a triple challenge: increasing the performance to meet the global need for food security and better nutrition; environmental sustainability to protect the planet and ensure their productive capacity; and productivity growth and diversification of livelihoods to overcome poverty and hunger. Under the SOFA, all these challenges mean that family farmers must innovate.
The report calls for the public sector, working with farmers, civil society organizations and the private sector, improve innovation systems for agriculture.
“In all cases, family farmers have to be leaders of innovation, as only this will take ownership of the process and ensure that the solutions offered meet your needs”, Aseguró Graziano da Silva. “The family farm, he added, is a key component of healthy food systems we need to lead a healthier life”.
The policy makers must also take into account the diversity of family farming in terms of size, technology used and the integration into markets and their ecological and socioeconomic environments.
Public investment in agricultural research and extension services and advice, which should be designed to be more participativos- be increased to emphasize sustainable intensification and closing achievement gaps and productivity of labor that characterize
Although agricultural research by private companies is increasing public sector investment remains essential to ensure research in areas of little interest to the private sector, such as basic research, orphan crops or sustainable production practices.
Family farms are vital
The FAO report provides a comprehensive set of new details on family farms.
In many high-income countries and upper-middle income, large farms, -responsible of most of the production-also occupy most of the farmland. But in most low- income and lower middle-income, small and medium-sized farms occupy most of the agricultural land and produce most of the food.
Small farms produce a greater proportion of global food on the percentage of land used, as they tend to have higher yields than larger, within the same country farms and agro-ecological environments.
However, this higher land productivity on family farms implies lower productivity of labor, perpetuating poverty and hinders development. Much of the world's food production involves unpaid work of family.
The report emphasizes that it is essential to increase output per worker, especially in low-income countries, in order to raise farm incomes and improve rural economic conditions in general.
Currently, the farm size is becoming smaller and smaller in most developing countries, where many families of small farmers derive most of their income from non-agricultural activities.
Policies should seek to increase access to inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, as well as to markets and credit, says the SOFA.
The FAO report also notes that organizations efficient and inclusive producers can support innovation by its members, helping them to access markets, and facilitating links with others in the innovation system, and ensure that farms families have a voice in policymaking.
To encourage family farmers to invest in sustainable agricultural practices, which often have high upfront costs and long amortization periods, they should seek to create an enabling environment for innovation.
Policies to catalyze innovation will have to go beyond technology transfer, warns the SOFA. They should also be inclusive and adapted to local contexts, so that farmers are owners of innovation, and take into account gender and intergenerational relations, involving young people in the future of the agricultural sector.
SOURCE: Fao.org
