UN declares 2014 as International Year of Family Farming

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) in a bid to reposition the occupation to be at the centre of national agriculture.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the UN food agency, and made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

According to the statement, this declaration was supported by the World Rural Forum, regional family farmers’ networks in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and 37th FAO Conference, among others.

“UN General Assembly declared 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), a move designed to reposition family farming at the centre of national agricultural, environmental, and social policy making.

“This has the strong support of the World Rural Forum, regional family farmers’ networks in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and 37th FAO Conference, among others’’, the statement said.

Family farming which the statement defined as farms which rely primarily on family members for labour and management remains, the dominant form of agriculture in developed and developing countries.

The statement said experts had put the number of family farms at over 500 million globally and they ranked from medium-scale farmers, peasants, indigenous peoples, fisher folk, and pastoralists.

It also noted that the importance of family farms in alleviating hunger and rural poverty was immeasurable.

Similarly in a separate statement, the World Farmers Organisatipn (WFO) said its active participation in the International Steering Committee for the IYFF was with a view to achieving the goals set by the UN.

The statement noted that Family farming played an important role among the nearly 60 members of the WFO from 44 different countries.

It added that in some countries, such as Belgium, Ghana, Norway and Sweden, Family Farming “represents the quasi entirety of the agricultural sector”.

In others countries such as Switzerland, UK, Finland, Ireland, Uganda, Australia, Family Farming constitutes 95 per cent of the agricultural production.

“Globally, Family Farming represents the principal organisational model in agriculture; Family Farming, therefore, represents an important opportunity for the economy’’ the statement said.

It noted that some countries had already implemented policies to support Family Farming, while in other countries more work needed to be done.

The statement said among the WFO members, the UK, Finland and Switzerland had highlighted the need for measures to enhance competitiveness and reduce the dependency on European funds.

It noted that in the U.S., specific measures were implemented to protect the Family Farming model and in Canada, access to finance was facilitated.

In Argentina special measures were implemented to facilitate greater cooperation among the different actors in the value chain and in Australia, Family Farms could count on financial aid and tax breaks.

“This is proof of the key role played by Family Farming in our communities, as well as local and global economy’’ the statement said.(NAN)