Deep Roots

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Uganda uses volunteer mentors to transform gender relations

within the household. Participating households have reported

not only increased household income and food security, but

also improvements in women’s decision-making influence and

more harmonious household relations.

Investment in family farming can also empower young people.

Given that the majority of poor young people are still living in

rural areas, finding ways to enable young rural women and men

to obtain decent livelihoods must be a priority. Although young

rural people will have to be key players if global agriculture is to

meet the diverse challenges it will face in the coming decades,

the present absence of employment opportunities in rural areas

is one of the primary reasons young people are migrating at

unprecedented levels. This deprives rural communities of their

most energetic and innovative members. But there is poten-

tial to create productive opportunities for young rural people,

which can provide a viable alternative to migration and ease

pressure on saturated labour markets.

In Egypt, the IFAD-supported West Noubaria Rural

Development Project has provided unemployed young people

with small plots of farmland in newly reclaimed desert lands

outside the Nile delta. These new farmers have received training

and technical support, and marketing associations have been set

up to help them compete with larger-scale farmers. Nearly 45,000

young graduates have benefited from this project, which has

created more than 60,000 permanent and 80,000 seasonal jobs.

In Senegal, the IFAD-supported Project for the Promotion

of Rural Entrepreneurs has provided youth-sensitive capacity

building for producer organizations in selected poor regions. It

has offered training for business development service provid-

ers, with a focus on enabling young entrepreneurs to access

services. Thus far, 1,500 new enterprises and 4,000 jobs have

been created, 63 per cent of which have been for young people.

Increasingly, investment in family farming is coming from

family farmers themselves and from other private sector actors

involved in agricultural value chains. Many IFAD-supported

projects already involve partnerships between groups of farmers,

cooperatives, processing or marketing companies and commer-

cial banks or microfinance institutions. In addition, there has

been widespread commitment from governments to broaden

public investments in agriculture, which also supports efforts

to reduce poverty. Generally, however, governments have

reduced direct investment, shifting their focus to facilitating

investment by farmers themselves and other private enterprises.

Remittances also play an important role in fostering investment

in family farms. IFAD’s multi-donor Financing Facility for

Remittances demonstrates notable examples deriving from 50

remittance-related projects in some 40 countries, which have

tested innovative mechanisms and products. For example,

the Philippines’ Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities

Initiatives Inc., through an IFAD co-financed grant, has helped

change the lives of thousands of Filipino migrant investors by

means of its financial literacy training programme.

What is clear is that there can be no food and nutrition

security without family farming. A future where family

farming is at the centre of agricultural, economic, environ-

mental and social agendas will be key for promoting equitable

and sustainable development. Emerging global and national

realities present even wider opportunities and potential

returns from investing in family farming than ever before.

These realities demand new investment innovations, new

kinds of partnerships and enabling policies. IFAD, in collabo-

ration with its member states and partners, is developing new

approaches to respond to these challenges and opportunities

for family farmers in order to enable them to participate in and

benefit from inclusive growth, to realize the future we want.

In The Gambia, the Participatory Integrated Watershed-Management Project

is building bridges so farmers can access their paddy fields despite floods

Putting family farming at the centre of the development agenda will be key

for promoting equitable and sustainable development

Image: IFAD/Momodou Gassama

Image: IFAD/Susan Beccio

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