A world where diverse, healthy and sustainable food and agricultural systems flourish, where resilient rural and urban communities enjoy a high quality of life in dignity, equity, free from hunger and poverty.
Family farming is essential to achieve this vision.
Sensible policies, programs and regulations considering the needs of present and future generations must protect and expand the agency, inclusion and economic capacity of family farmers, putting their diversity at the centre of sustainable development and contributing to the Agenda 2030.
This journey must start now.
To achieve this vision, the Global Action Plan of the UNDFF provides detailed guidance for the international community on collective and coherent actions that can be taken to support family farmers. It outlines a comprehensive approach to support efforts to achieve the SDGs, in the context of the progressive realization of the Right to Adequate Food.
Designed around seven mutually reinforcing pillars of work, the Global Action Plan recommends a series of interconnected actions from the local to the global level. Any interventions developed during the UNDFF must always consider the diversity of family farmers. They should be context-specific, adapted to regional, national, local socio-cultural and socio-economic conditions. To guarantee the success of the UNDFF, all actions should place family farmers at the centre and be implemented through bottom-up, participatory and inclusive processes.
Building an enabling political, social and economic environment based on the solid and sustained commitment of all relevant actors is a prerequisite for family farmers to be able to lead the transformation towards more sustainable, healthy and nutritious food and agricultural systems.
An enabling environment means that there are adequate resources and that governance and institutional arrangements are effective and inclusive. Family farmers and their organizations must have the opportunity to engage fully in multi-sectoral and multi-actor mechanisms, platforms and policy processes, as well as in advocacy and awareness-raising activities.
Inclusive processes, real commitments and stronger partnerships will lead to a shift from traditional sectoral policies to comprehensive, context-specific strategies and programmes that adequately support family farmers and their multi-dimensional nature.
THE WAY FORWARD:
The entry of young people into farming is widely recognized as a key driver in fostering agriculture and food production and maintaining the vitality of rural areas. However, young people who aspire to a future in farming currently face multiple structural and institutional barriers.
To guarantee the generational sustainability of agriculture, it is vital to promote mechanisms that facilitate the intergenerational transfer of tangible and intangible farming assets.
Incentivising youth to enter farming will ensure continuous innovation, help revitalise rural areas and lead to reframe society’s perception of family farming as a dynamic sector with constant renewal capacity.
THE WAY FORWARD:
Rural women are essential to eliminating poverty, achieving zero hunger and creating sustainable, productive and inclusive food systems. They contribute both labour and knowledge of agricultural practices and biodiversity. They also play a unique and central role in managing natural resources, providing services, and building resilience within their families and communities.
Despite their contributions, women farmers are more likely to suffer a lack of respect for their basic human rights, and remain among those most affected by poverty and social exclusion.
This “gender gap” limits the ability of rural women to take advantage of new opportunities, and prevents them from reaching their full potential to contribute to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
THE WAY FORWARD:
When family farmers organize in formal or non-formal networks, farmers’ associations, agricultural cooperatives or social movements, they are more able to improve their situations and achieve better and longer lasting results.
Strong, well-established organizations of family farmers can contribute to policy change, link local solutions to national and global goals, and respond to challenges such as climate change. These organizations act as catalysts, helping family farmers to exercise their rights and improving access to agricultural resources, public services, markets and policies.
Family farmers’ organizations help to create vibrant and inclusive rural societies. Therefore, it is particularly important to support family farmers in developing new organizations and strengthening the existing ones, and enhancing their capacity to promote and articulate new services according to their views and the requests of the members.
THE WAY FORWARD:
Family farming is the foundation of food security and sustainable healthy food systems, and yet family farmers are among those who are most impacted by poverty and vulnerability and face the highest levels of economic, financial, social and environmental risks.
Family farmers will be less vulnerable if they have access to basic services, infrastructure, social protection systems, diversified production practices and markets. This access will allow them to overcome structural constraints and address problems that arise, allowing them to transition from the vulnerability of subsistence farming to a more secure social and economic position, from where they are better positioned to (re)invest in their farms, families and communities.
THE WAY FORWARD:
Today, food production and consumption have shifted from culturally and socially embedded systems and are disconnected from local ecological and social dimensions.
In order to meet the needs of present and future generations, it is essential to accelerate the transition toward more sustainable food systems that can simultaneously provide economic opportunities, protect ecosystems and respect the cultural and social diversity of different territories.
Rooted in their communities and with an understanding of local ecologies, family farmers have the unique potential to drive this transition. They are well positioned to offer contextualized, comprehensive and long-term solutions for sustainable food systems.
THE WAY FORWARD:
Family farmers not only produce food, but also provide several services and public goods for society: they ensure the sustainability of agro-ecosystems, landscape management and the transmission of locally- and traditionally-rooted knowledge, cultural heritage and social values.
Their practices of production, consumption, and social and cultural reproduction are strongly embedded in the local communities and territories where family farmers interact, combine, transform and renew ecological, economic and social resources.
Supporting the complexity and multidimensionality of family farmers can carry the promise of promoting endogenous growth and preserving the diversity of ecosystems, genetic resources, culture and life.
THE WAY FORWARD: