The FAO Director-General argued that the world's rural areas will be the key battleground in the push to achieve the 2030 sustainable development agenda, since it is there that poverty and hunger are most concentrated.

At the same time, most of the increases in agricultural yields required to feed a world population set to surpass 9 billion by 2050 will have to take place in these same regions, and will greatly depend on small family farmers, according to FAO studies.