Supporting Family Farmers to reduce rural poverty
There are still 2.1 billion poor people and other 900 million living in extreme poverty, most of which live in rural areas. Most of the poor live in rural areas and 95% per cent of the rural poor live in East Asia, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the rural poor are smallholders and family farmers, who depend on agriculture for their food and income. FAO works through a multi-dimensional approach to address the challenges that poor family farmers face in their daily lives and increase their income generating capacity. At the policy level, FAO helps countries shape poverty reduction policies and programme that improve family farmers’ participation in decision-making, increase their access to resources, financial services, markets and technologies while increasing decent employment opportunities and promoting better social protection coverage in rural areas. At the community level, FAO empowers poor family farmers to participate in policy dialogue and decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods, and improves their capacities to access resources, services, markets, technologies and economic opportunities through agricultural, organizational and entrepreneurial skills.