The fight against hunger forges ahead around the world, but with about 805 million people who still do not have enough to eat, a lot more still needs to be done. 

Sixty-three developing countries have already reached the Millennium Development Goal hunger target of halving the proportion of chronic undernourishment by 2015. What their stories tell us is that to win the war against hunger we need political commitment, a holistic approach, social participation and family farming.

Throughout the world, family farmers play a crucial socio-economic, environmental and cultural role which, amid serious challenges, needs to be cherished and strengthened through innovation.

Recognising this, the United Nations designated 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming. The theme of this year’s World Food Day also celebrates the contribution family farmers make to food security and sustainable development: they feed the world and care for the earth.

The facts presented in FAO’s annual State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA) report clearly justify the emphasis being placed on family farming.

Around 500 million of the world’s 570 million farms are run by families. They are the main caretakers of our natural resources. As a sector, they form the world’s largest employer, supply more than 80 percent of the world’s food in terms of value, and are often the main producers of fresh food and prosper in dairy, poultry and pig production.

Rwanda is experiencing its best growth performance since independence accompanied also by the heralded progress in reducing poverty. Food crops, which include commodities that can be regionally and internationally tradable but exclude crops produced for exports only, account for 83-85 percent of agricultural GDP. The size of this subsector makes it clear that even modest growth in food crops will have much bigger effect on the overall agricultural and economic growth of the country than rapid growth in smaller subsectors (export crops and livestock).

Additional productivity growth and area expansion in only six food crops leads to an increase in the annual growth rate of total food crops by 2.1 percentage points from the base-run, which results in additional 1.7 and 0.65 percentage points of growth that occurs annually in agricultural GDP and GDP in 2013-2020 respectively.

The one-cow per poor rural family program is reported to have made significant progress in the recent years, the outcome does not show up in macro data. In national accounts, livestock is only about 4.5 percent of agricultural GDP, higher than the 2.8 percent for export crops, but smaller than the size of forestry (6.8 percent). Growth rate of livestock in recent years is reported at 3.3 percent in national accounts, only slightly higher than the 3 percent population growth. Nevertheless, an extremely optimistic growth cow/milk and poultry sector in the livestock-led growth simulation, which results in 12 percent annual growth rate of the subsector as a whole.

Yet many family farmers, especially subsistence producers, are part of the 70 percent of the world’s food-insecure population who live in rural areas. This means that family farmers still have a great potential they can fulfill with the right support. SOFA points out the challenges the sector faces and how we can work together to overcome them.

Over the last few decades profound changes have happened in the way food is produced, traded and consumed.

Meanwhile, agricultural productivity has dramatically increased, thanks also to scientific and technological progress. A growing and increasingly urbanized world population is relying on food produced by a much smaller percentage of farmers compared to that of the post-Second World War period. The marketplace for agriculture and food products has become globalized.

The diets of the vast majority of the people in the world rely on just four commodities.

Family farming and the support it receives need to adjust in ways that can respond to these changing conditions. Innovation is key to make this happen: family farmers need to innovate in the systems they use; governments need to innovate in the specific policies they implement to support family farming; producers’ organizations need to innovate to respond better to the needs of family farmers; and research and extension institutions need to innovate by shifting from a research-driven process predominantly based on technology transfer, to an approach that enables and rewards innovation by family farmers themselves.

Additionally, in all its forms, innovation needs to be inclusive, involving family farmers in the generation, sharing and use of knowledge so that they have ownership of the process, taking on board both the benefits and the risks, and making sure that it truly responds to local contexts.

Clearly, family farmers need to produce enough food not just for themselves, but also for people in rural areas not involved in farming or city dwellers. They also need to generate income – money to buy inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, but also to guarantee decent livelihoods including paying for their children’s education and other needs.

When family farmers are stronger, it is a win-win situation: more food available locally translates into more food security and into the possibility of producing and buying food for and in local markets. In turn, this means fresher and healthier meals that respect local culture and values local foods, contributes to better nutrition and makes more money flow in local economies helping them flourish. The list of potential benefits does not stop there and includes, for instance, the possibility of linking local production to school meals and the opportunity to stimulate industries that can support the flourishing production.

These efforts lead to sustainable territorial rural development, something that everyone – farmers, communities and governments – should invest in. When we combine productive support to social protection and other public support such as better access to health facilities and schools, we can create a truly virtuous sustainable development cycle.

In the joint effort to promote environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive economic growth, women and the youth deserve special attention. Women play a crucial, yet not always duly recognized role throughout the food system – from producing and marketing food to ensuring adequate nutrition in families.. At the same time, we need to stem the exodus of the rural youth, who often are forced to look elsewhere when wishing to improve their lives. We need to create the conditions for the youth to view a life in rural areas as a future of opportunities; this includes training programs that can allow them tap into their entrepreneurial potential.

As we rapidly approach the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, we are also working together to forge the sustainable, hunger-free future we want. Family farmers are protagonists in this effort.

The writer is FAO Director General.