Help For The Poorest Farmers?

Investing in agriculture is effective in driving down rates of rural hunger and poverty” says FAO director general José Graziano da Silva.

15:26 18 October 2015

The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 report found that 800 million people in the world remain hungry and among them are family farmers and subsistence farmers who struggle to make a living.

 

FAO director general José Graziano da Silva, said: “This is unacceptable.”

 

"The FAO, in 2013, elevated its goal from reducing hunger to eliminating hunger."

 

"For this reason, investing in agriculture and rural areas… is effective in driving down rates of rural hunger and poverty," he explained.

 "Poor families are also extremely vulnerable to external shocks, such as floods, pests, droughts and price volatility.

"With climate change, the shocks happen year after year; it eats away at the capacity of the rural poor to cope with it.

"Social protection offers poor families a kind of buffer to protect them from external shocks."

 

FAO assistant director general Jomo Kwame Sundaram observed: "Most of the world's poor and hungry continue to live in rural areas. According to the World Bank, about 78% of the planet's poor are found in rural areas.

 

"Also, we know that the state of the world economy is very poor and the prospects for improvement are very bleak, particularly given the austerity measures of many countries," Dr Sundaram added.

 

"It is important to recognise that most people in developing countries are not currently covered by social protection."