Did you know that 2014 was the International Year of Family Farming? Know their worth!

Stained glass; Sao Paolo Mercado, the municipal market/SD

According to FAO figures, 80% of the world’s food is produced in family farms who mostly have minimum survival income, unprotected, and face the onslaught of the free market. Indian newspapers are screaming about farmer suicides; African countries farmlands are being grabbed; rain forests of Borneo and Amazon are ethanol plantations, yet the small family farmer remains vulnerable. Newsweek in 2014 reported that

“one farmer commits suicide daily in UK and China, in two days in France, every four days in Australia and India reports more than 17,627 farmer suicides”

Climate change, is making these family farms more vulnerable, with dwindling resources like water and nutrient soil while, newer pests and extreme weather events are on the rise. The large scale corporate dominated food production approach has not been very successful , agrees many experts but they corner most of the subsidies and research budget.

Small family farms are extremely crucial for ensuring global food security and the infographic from FAO is revealing.

FAO-Infographic-FamilyFarms/http://www.fao.org/assets/infographics/FAO-Infographic-IYFF14-FamilyFarms-en.pdf

The International Year for family farms is a noble gesture but that does not stop farmers from turning suicidal. FAO strongly recommends Agrarian reforms, including in aquatic, forestry and pastoral sectors  and the need for developing stronger farmer organisations to balance the economic and political power of other actors. A host of FAO suggestions can be found on their partner, ILEIA’s website. In a recent forum of crop production specialists, organized by FAO in Rome, numerous research success were shared; which was well captured by William Murray, a Senior Programme Coordinator at FAO.

• In Viet Nam, more than a million small-scale farmers have adopted the System of Rice Intensification producing high yields using less fertilizer, water and seed than conventional irrigated rice.
• In China, planting genetically diverse rice varieties cut fungal disease incidence.
• In southern India, site-specific nutrient management, reduced fertilizer applications and costs, while increasing wheat yields by 40 percent.
• The elimination of soil tillage on wheat land in central Morocco cut water runoff volume by 30% and sediment loss by 70%.
• In Zimbabwe, conservation agriculture has helped smallholder farmers produce up to eight times more maize per hectare than the national average.
• Farmers in Zambia grow an acacia tree, Faidherbia albida, near maize fields, and use its nitrogen-rich leaves as fertilizer resulting in a threefold increase in maize yields.