Putting Swaziland's smallholders first

21 September 2012, Mbabane, Rome - Rural farmers in Swaziland are starting to reap the fruits of a comprehensive effort by the government and FAO with support of the European Union (EU) to reverse the country's declining agricultural productivity.

Consecutive years of drought, a crushing aids pandemic, decades of economic slowdown and more recent soaring prices of food and agricultural inputs: it has become increasingly hard to make a living for Swaziland's cash-strapped rural population, highly dependent on subsistence farming.

According to FAO's most recent hunger figures, almost 20 percent of the country's one million people is undernourished.