Small-scale farming is a unique opportunity to end hunger in the Near East and North Africa

29 May 2019, Rome / Cairo - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today launched the United Nations' Decade of Family Farming and a Global Action Plan to boost support for family farmers, particularly those in developing countries.

Prior to the launch of the decade, FAO organized a series of events focused on aspects of family farming across different regions, as well as on challenges and opportunities for family farming. These sessions brought together representatives from a range of countries and sectors.

Small-scale family farming provides more than 80 percent of agricultural production and holds nearly 75 to 85 percent of agricultural lands in the Near East and North Africa region, that face numerous common challenges to achieving improved food security, nutrition and inclusive agricultural development.

Recent conflicts and civil instability in some countries of the region as well as rapid population growth, increasing urbanization, low growth in food production, scarce and fragile natural resources and the threat of climate change have been compounding the situation.

“Despite its enormous contribution to food security and to rural economy, small-scale family farming faces a number of intertwined constraints in the region impeding its productivity, profitability and contribution to economic growth,” Rachid Serraj FAO’s Senior Agricultural Officer said at the NENA session organized prior the launch event of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming.

"Family farming is crucial to sustainable development in many aspects, including the eradication of poverty, hunger and all forms of malnutrition, as well as in preserving natural resources, ”Serraj highlighted.

Serraj also emphasized on the importance the UN Decade of Family Farming and said, “It is a unique opportunity to build the resilience of smallholders and family farmers so they can prepare for and adapt to these alarming challenges.”

NENA Initiative on Small-Scale Family Farming

Policy advice and best practice ideas on promoting and supporting inclusive small-scale agricultural development, is a key offering in FAO's Small-scale Family Farming Initiative launched back in 2014.

The initiative is developing regional programmatic work on social protection that will improve policy targeting of small holders, rural services and markets, strengthening the capacities of producers’ organizations and is piloting programmes to address youth unemployment and migration in the region.

In Lebanon, family farmers have limited resources and receive little to no social protection – 75 percent of small-scale farmers are not registered – causing them to implement counterproductive coping mechanisms.

FAO is working with the Lebanese government to strengthen the interconnections between agricultural and social policies to help rural communities and expand social protection coverage to farmers and fishers.

In light of this, FAO assisted the Lebanese government in establishing a digital farmers’ registry that integrates for the first time socio-economic indicators of farmers’ households and information characterizing farmers’ plots and their locations, to build information that would assist in agricultural development and provision of agricultural services as well as for designing social assistance programmes.

The United Nations' Decade of Family Farming

In 2017, over 100 countries unanimously voted in the UN General Assembly to adopt the UN Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028.

FAO and IFAD co-lead the Decade in its global mandate to focus the efforts of the international community, including governments and the UN system, to create policies, laws and frameworks that will support family farmers to improve their food security, nutrition and incomes, thereby supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and investments in rural people.