07 March 2013, Lilongwe - FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs led an EU-FAO joint mission to Malawi to discuss with the Government ways to support increasing food security and sustainable agricultural production in the country. While Malawi has made progress by becoming self-sufficient in maize and even produces enough of that grain to support exports, some two million people in the country still remain food insecure. FAO, the EU and the Government of Malawi also agreed that sustainable land use and the rights that go with it should be part of the rural development work being done. FAO is convinced that small-scale farmers organized in cooperatives can lift themselves out of poverty and malnutrition by improving their access to markets, buying inputs at better prices, and obtaining financial and social protection services.