Antananarivo - Cost-effective, demand-driven delivery mechanism set to strengthen Forest and Farm Producer organizations

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ, German international development cooperation agency) launched the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) in Madagascar, which aims at strengthening forest and farm producers’ ability to achieve climate-resilient landscapes and improved livelihoods.  

Representatives from FAO, government, forest and farm producer organizations, and international partners including GIZ, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and representatives of the private sector, have met today in Antananarivo to strengthen collaboration among key stakeholders and define the purpose and priorities of the FFF initiative in Madagascar.

The Forest and Farm Facility envisions Madagascar reaching at least 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing particularly on forest and farm producers as key actors for future change.

“Madagascar's context of deforestation and degradation is very relevant for the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) objectives. Farmers and producer organizations are key players in any national effort to restore and rehabilitate forest cover.” said Patrice Talla Takoukam, FAO Representative in Madagascar.    

Major challenges and opportunities related to the expected results of the FFF in Madagascar were presented along with a set of key priorities for the upcoming months, which focus on the involvement and participation of women, and youth in decision making.

Takoukam added, “Working in collaboration with, and strengthening these forest and farm producer organizations can lead to improved livelihoods, successful enterprises, and landscape scale management, especially for women and the more marginalized. It can offer new opportunities to youth to offset the pull of migration.”

The forest sector in Madagascar plays a vital role in the life of Malagasy society. It is through the forest that the Malagasy people are able to acquire products, such as vanilla, honey, ginger and several other non-wood forest products for family consumption and marketing.

Implementation of the FFF in Madagascar 

The second phase of the FFF, which runs up to 2022, is likewise commencing in Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Ecuador, Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, Togo, Viet Nam, and Zambiawith an initial budget of approximately USD 18 million from international donors, including Sweden and Finland.

FFF will be piloted in the regions of Boeny, Diana and Sofia in Madagascar. It will provide support to forest and farm producer organizations to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills, their value chains in wood processing, and their access to local and regional markets. Amplifying the voice of forest and farm producer organizations in decision making will help them to work better with local governments and increase therefore their capacity to restore forest landscapes.  

“We are very thankful to GIZ and IUCN for providing support to FAO for FFF Phase II. This initiative will help to scale up the positive action of the forest and farm producer organizations to restore degraded lands, and to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on family farmers.” said FAO Forestry Officer, Jhony Zapata.

In Antananarivo, discussions focused on the priorities of the workplan and the identification of key partners for the implementation of FFF in Madagascar.

Why invest in forest and farm producer organizations?

An estimated 1.5 billion forest and farm producers make up 90 percent of the world’s farmers. Family farms occupy around 70-80 percent of farmland and produce more than 80 percent of the world's food in value terms. Family farmers include forest communities. Around 40 percent of the extreme rural poor live in forest and savannah areas.

FFF is a partnership among FAO, IIED, IUCN and AgriCord. Its Steering Committee includes members affiliated with forest producers, community forestry, indigenous peoples’ organizations, the international research community, business development service provider organizations, the private sector, government and donors. Together, these partners have mandates and networks to engage effectively with governments, provide technical support, knowledge generation, monitoring and learning, support membership networks from local to global, and provide strong links to farmers’ professional organizations as well as to regional and global forest and farm producer organization federations.