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New UN agricultural study to help reduce poverty among small farmers

New UN agricultural study to help reduce poverty among small farmers

With international investment in agriculture at an all-time low and more than 70 per cent of the world's poor living in rural areas, a landmark United Nations study on the future of agriculture in developing countries identifies options for poor farmers in more than 70 different farming systems around the world.

Entitled "Farming Systems and Poverty: Improving livelihoods in a changing world," the study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank says governments and institutions intent on helping farmers in developing countries must first understand the world in which they live and the many choices they have to make each day.

Detailed analyses were conducted on 20 of the world's 70 farming systems, which together support nearly two billion farmers and their families, about 80 per cent of the agricultural population of the developing world.

According to FAO, in some systems, farmers may escape poverty principally by intensifying or diversifying their production. In others, increasing rural non-farm employment offers the best pathway out of poverty, while in some of the poorest systems, many farm families will inevitably abandon their farms and seek better lives in the cities.

The feasibility and attractiveness of these different options depends not so much on which province, state or even country the farmers live in, but rather upon the nature of the farming system in which they live, the UN agency says.

The emphasis on poverty reduction calls for increased attention to support farm level diversification and growth of off-farm income to supplement intensification of existing production patterns, FAO says.

"The farming systems approach will help [the World Bank and other development agencies] set their priorities for investment in food security, poverty reduction and economic growth by funding broad-based agricultural development that reaches and benefits the poorest and hungriest small-scale farm families," says John Dixon, FAO senior farming systems officer and one of the co-authors of the report.