In the context of COVID-19 outbreak, FAO RNE is organizing this Zoominar on Farmer organizations’ role in promoting innovation to increase food security, and sustainable rural development.  Since the early spread of COVID-19, FAO underscored the crucial role of farmer organizations in increasing resilience and rethinking priorities of food security policies to keep food supply chains alive and to achieve the SDGs. 

In this critical context, FAO is highlighting the merit of scaling up innovation in agriculture, including digitalization and e-commerce; producing more food, in a more sustainable way; safeguarding biodiversity and addressing environmental issues; and changing current business models, related to the food system. 

Farmer organizations are playing an important role to improve access to input and output markets, access and management to natural resources and improve knowledge and information as well as advocate for policy change through engaged discussions in policy-making processes, in review of legislative frameworks; and enhancing resilience and food security by building capacities, developing agricultural information systems and generating data.