FAO helps raise awareness on COVID-19 for small-scale family farmers
©FAO/Sheam Kaheel - FAO is helping farmers build so-called “low tunnels” to produce vegetable seedlings during the pandemic COVID-19 at Hama, Syria.
7 June 2020, Cairo, Egypt – The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region is working to provide small-scale family farmers with the needed knowledge to overcome challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including, on one hand, safety procedures and hygiene regulations, and on the other hand, accessing markets and crop selection.
FAO has produced a series of videos with different awareness raising messages to be distributed to farmers digitally, for example, through Whatsapp, in order to reach farmers quickly and easily, while maintaining social distancing.
"What can farmers do to overcome challenges caused by COVID-19? There are many digital innovative solutions farmers can use, such as online markets to sell their crops to overcome restricted movement and agriculture technology for crop production to limit the number of people on the farm," said Rachid Serraj, FAO Senior Projects Officer, in one of the videos.
"Farmers need to clean and sanitize all their harvesting equipment, including tools, boxes, tables, and trucks. However, the cleaning and sanitizing chemicals and procedures need to ensure good food safety measures," stated Faten Adada, FAO Agriculture Specialist, in another video.
Small-scale family farmers play an enormous role in food security and the economy. In the NENA region – and the world – families in rural areas own most farms and provide the vast majority of food in markets. With the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of family farmers has become even more important to ensure that markets have a steady flow of food.