Family and farm represent a unity that continuously co-evolves, fulfilling economic, environmental, social and cultural functions of the wider rural economy and within territorial networks in which they are embedded. Family farmers run diversified agricultural systems and preserve traditional food products, contributing to both a balanced diet and the protection of the world’s agro-biodiversity. Safeguarding local cultures, they spend their incomes mostly within local and regional markets, thus generating many agricultural and non-agricultural jobs. Family farmers, thus, hold a unique potential to improve the sustainability of agriculture and food systems, for which an enabling policy environment supports them in this path is an imperative.
Building on the success of the International Year of Family Farming of 2014 and on the improved knowledge about the multiple contribution of family farmers to sustainable rural life – family farming produces over 80 per cent of world’s food, while also improves environmental sustainability of agriculture, preserves and restores biodiversity and ecosystems, traditional and nutritious food, thus contributes to a balanced diet and to the maintenance of cultural heritage in rural areas – the Decade will aim at focusing the efforts of the international community to work collectively on the design and implementation of comprehensive economic, environmental and social policies in order to create a conductive environment and strengthen the position of family farming.
The systematic work on cross-cutting and multi-dimensional issues which are of concern to family farmers will, in turn, automatically improve national results in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while positioning family farmers as key agents of change in transforming food systems.
The Global Launch of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming, which will take place at FAO headquarters in Rome on Wednesday 29 May 2019, co-organized by FAO and IFAD as the Joint Secretariat of the UN Decade. The Launch will be preceded on 27 and 28 May 2019 by farmers’ knowledge exchange sessions and regional dialogues on priorities for the implementation of the Decade, open to the participation of representatives of the relevant stakeholders (Governments, Civil Society Organizations, producers organizations, Academia, and the Private Sector).
Learn more: http://www.fao.org/family-farming/decade/en/