1) Impact of COVID-19 outbreak in NENA region
How does/did the COVID-19 outbreak exacerbate the challenges faced by small-scale family farmers (SSFF)?
The Global COVID-19 pandemic had managed to amplify the already critical nature of the agriculture sector. The COVID-19 containment measures; lockdown and restrictions to movement imposed by authorities; have resulted in drastic disruption in farm activities in terms of sale of their products and purchase of the necessary agricultural inputs (Pesticides, Seeds and Fertilizers) and quite a difficulty to have access to labor. COVID-19 outbreak has led to disturbance in purchase of fresh food by regular consumers, a decrease in demand of fruit and vegetables by restaurants and hotels, and an increase in complexity to export fresh products.
And what are the main areas of interventions that could efficiently build SSFF resilience and ensure sustainable livelihood?
Policies should take in consideration measures to facilitate access to agriculture inputs, SSFF need to raise their resilience to reach market during unforeseen and exceptional period.
Area of intervention could be to assist farmers to cooperate and complement their activities together to distribute and reduce their losses; also they can be trained to store their products, and if resources are available, they need to be provided by the necessary equipments for processing and cold storage facilities.
Can you share success examples in the region?
The challenges that faced SSFF during the pandemic led some private reactions, women were encouraged in rural area to process fruit and vegetables that can be sell all year around. Also we witness e-service initiatives such as e-commerce to ease the delivery of products; many applications were developed lately to help deliver fresh produce during the curfew period. (sendme app)
2) Sustainable transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems
In order to meet the needs of a growing population, it is essential to accelerate the transition toward more sustainable food systems with special consideration to the degradation of the already scarce natural resources and climate change impact in the NENA region.
Can you give brief description of key CC impact factors on productivity of main farming systems in the region?
It is obvious that climate change has complex effects on agriculture in NENA region and some of the main effects are drought, in a region that is already suffering from a shortage in water,
Another indirect effect of climate change is its impact on higher incidence of crop pests and diseases.
Water availability, pest and diseases are the two main limiting factors to increase production.
How can innovation and digital solutions accelerate such transition of the agi-food systems?
Innovation is an important hope to agriculture; early warning system and new irrigation system for example, may help monitoring the ultimate uses of the natural resources and controlling pests and diseases, therefore increasing productivity. Also extension service are more reachable and easier.
How can the UNDFF provide tools and measures that help SSFF facing the climate and socioeconomic challenges?
UNDFF, in close collaboration with the national government and other stakeholders in the country, may develop and apply a new policy and update legislation that aim to address the socioeconomic and the well-being of SSFF. The successful measures implemented in other region and encoraging initiations can be replicated to support SSFF.
3) Towards an inclusive and growth equitable
Improving the productivity and sustainability of small-scale family farmers alone will not be sufficient to achieve the UNDFF milestones or SDG goals in the NENA region. The engagement of adolescents and youth, women and individuals in vulnerable situations such as migrants, will be critical to long term, inclusive and equitable growth.
Based on your experience, what are effective strategies, instruments or mechanisms to ensure adequate access to services, resources and social protection among marginalized or vulnerable groups, including in humanitarian contexts?
Knowledge is a key factor to strengthen the FF, they should be socially and economically considered in the national strategies and their role should be highlighted among the whole population. However only efficient family farming organization can advocate acknowledgement to the role of FF in sustainable development and request social protection. A farm registry in this case at national level is inevitable.
Despite the informality of the agriculture sector, any support for smallholder family farming can and should go hand in hand with the promotion of the Decent work Agenda. Family farmers are engaged in arduous and sometimes hazardous work to cut costs and compensate for the farm’s low productivity to an extent of involving children too, based on your experience please give three priority actions to enable decent employment for rural smallholders, youth and women and to eliminate child labour in family farming.
For the development of family farmers the following actions can be done:
- Helping in organizing active FF cooperative structure
- Securing a social insurance of a minimum basic family income/case per case study must be done (update legislations, and allocate the necessary budget…)
- Providing an information and communication system such as weather forecast service, land and water use, access to credit, access to market…
4) Enabling environment for the implementation of UNDFF
Building an enabling environment for the implementation of UNDFF regional action plan means that there are adequate resources and that governance and institutional arrangements are effective and inclusive.
How do you define roles of Governments, development agencies, farmers’ organizations, civil society and private sector in implementing the UNDFF in the region?
All the stakeholders will cooperate if ownership of the program precedes its implementation.
A multistakeholder dialogue for communication among all the concerned entities and for information purposes may be held to create an enabling environment and a partnership atmosphere ahead of implementing the UNDFF action plan.
What are the bottlenecks –any of the above institutions may encounter in achieving the UNDFF implementation in the region and how to overcome them? E.g. in terms of policies, financial resources, technical capacities, etc.
Financial resources, policies, legal framework could be limiting factors to implement UNDFF, but also the inexistence of an active FF organizations.
5) Partnerships
Partnerships associated with sustainable development initiatives can create synergies to address interconnected challenges that need to be addressed. With the aim to implement the UNDFF action plan in its seven pillars in the NENA region,
How can innovative partnerships be built and established? And how/what existing initiatives would you propose to replicate or scale up?
An environment of collaboration and cooperation need to be settle among the different institutions prior to implement the UNDFF in the region, the first step should be to define carefully all the institutions that should be involved and not leave any institution behind.
Mona Siblini