AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Small farmers who are key to world food output are producing and earning less as they face challenges to access land and financial services, the United Nations said.
That’s exacerbating food insecurity across the globe at a time when extreme weather is already hurting farm productivity, according to the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation in Rome.
The world is also not on track to meet many goals for sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, the FAO said in a report on Thursday.
It’s critical that small-scale food farmers — who account for about 80% of farm output — earn and produce more to reverse the trend of rising hunger, according to the agency.
It said on Monday that the number of undernourished people across the globe rose to more than 820 million in 2018, the highest level in eight years.
“Productivity of small-scale producers is systematically lower on average than for larger food producers and, in most countries, the incomes of small-scale food producers are less than half those of larger food producers,” the FAO said.
Meanwhile, the global farming industry remains behind on several goals that would create sustainability in agriculture. This includes not having enough plant-genetic resources in conservation facilities and genetic diversity in livestock breeds.
