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International Year of Family Farming concludes in Philippines’ capital
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Saturday, 29 November, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Manila
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fiogf49gjkf0d Officials and representatives of family farmers’ international networks, cooperatives, the private sector, academia and United Nations agencies marked the closure of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) in Manila by emphasising on how the initiative has helped raise awareness of the crucial role played by family farmers in fighting hunger and poverty worldwide.
“Above all, strong political commitment in favour of family farming has risen at the highest level in countries of the south and the north, throughout the IYFF,” said Marcela Villarreal, director, Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) Office of Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development. She was speaking at the event.
Villarreal noted how, thanks to IYFF, many more people around the world were now aware of the importance of the sector. Statistics showed that family farms produced more than 80 per cent of the world’s food in value terms and represented, collectively, one of the largest sources of employment worldwide.
“We also know that family farming is not just a mode of food production, but also a way of life,” she added, noting how this concept formed the basis of a legacy document on IYFF, which was drafted by the initiative’s International Steering Committee and presented at the closing event.
Participants included Virgilio de los Reyes, secretary, the Philippines’ Department of Agrarian Reform; Fanklin M Drilon, the country’s Senate president; Proceso J Alcala, its agriculture secretary, and Lupino Lazaro, chairman, International Steering Committee of IYFF. Esther Penunia and Ibrahim Coulibaly, special ambassadors for IYFF, also attended it.
This year, FAO dedicated its annual State of Food and Agriculture report to agricultural innovation in family farming, noting how of the 570 million-plus farms in the world, more than 500 million are family farms. In another initiative linked to IYFF, the theme of World Food Day 2014 was ‘Family Farming: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth’.
During the recent Global Dialogue on family farming, held at FAO’s Rome headquarters, governments, farmers’ organisations and private sector representatives explored ways on how to seize the current global momentum and galvanise concrete action in support of family farmers beyond 2014.
Participants discussed enabling the policy environment to bolster the capacity of family farmers to supply and access markets, especially at the local and domestic levels, including through promoting strong local food systems that link farms to schools and communities, and to generate jobs and incomes.
They agreed that secure access and use of land, water and other natural resources for family farmers was the key to meeting these goals. The Dialogue also endorsed a proposal for the establishment of a Web-based tool, the Family Farming Knowledge Platform, in early 2015.
The platform would be hosted by FAO with the objective of creating the world’s largest high-level collection of national laws, regulations, public policies, relevant data, best practices, compelling research, publications and articles related to family farming.
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