The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) co-organized the Global Family Farming Forum on October 15-18, 2024, at the FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. The event brought together global stakeholders to highlight the UN Decade of Family Farming’s (UNDFF) impact, showcase successes, and chart a course for innovative, equitable, and sustainable agrifood systems.
During the opening program on October 15, the UNDFF main activities and results of the first half of the decade were shared. The four-day forum featured discussions on the following:
- Public policy innovations for family farming
- Supporting family farmers to transform agrifood systems
- Challenges and opportunities of family farmers
- Trends affecting the future of small-scale family farming, rural employment and rural transformation
- Evolution of collective action of small-scale family farmers in the context of digitalization and concentration of market power
- Uptake of global policy instruments
- Investing in family farming
- Equitable access to and use of land, water and other natural resources
- Family farming for climate-resilient food systems
- Diversified market opportunities for family farming
Throughout the forum the stakeholders were encouraged to put family farmers at the center of dialogues and national public policies, empower women and the youth, facilitate collaboration among farmers and organizations, and innovate new approaches for agroecological farming.
Strategies to ensure the continued implementation of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming were also discussed in a panel session held on October 17, 2024. It highlighted the importance of financing, policy support, and making agriculture profitable, alongside the implementation of country-specific plans for lasting change. Empowering young farmers, women, and fostering innovation were identified as key strategies, with a focus on integrating family farmers into global discussions. Finally, the session stressed the importance of partnerships between governments and farmers’ organizations to enhance land productivity, climate resilience, and sustainability in family farming.
On the final day of the forum, the Young Farmers’ Roundtable convened to talk about the development of the toolkit for the Young Farmers Working Group. The discussion centered on empowering young farmers as agents of change through public policy and knowledge sharing.
The creation of a customizable toolkit was also discussed that could support smooth intergenerational transitions and informed decision-making for family farmers, while emphasizing the importance of access to technology and information for empowering the next generation. It also stressed the need for young farmers to collaborate, mobilize support, and work together to create a dignified life in agriculture.
Session recordings of the four-day forum can be accessed here.
The forum also featured “The Rural Radio: Voices for Change,” which showcased interviews of experts on rural communication and family farming from the United States, Somalia, Hungary, and the EU.
They talked about the unprecedented challenges faced by the agriculture sector amid a growing global population. Global cooperation, innovation, and investment in agriculture were seen as crucial in order to face these challenges.
Article contributed by Naomi Ida Marie C. De los Reyes, CCComDev intern
Photo courtesy of Aurora Napoli/FAO
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.