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Realizing the potential of family farms
with farmers’ organizations
Martin Dahinden, Director General; and Markus Buerli, Global Programme Food Security,
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Family farming has multiple benefits
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has
been working with family farms in various countries from the
beginning of its activities. In SDC’s view family farms hold the
key for providing a growing world population with healthy and
balanced diets and supplying jobs and income opportunities,
particularly in rural areas. At the same time, family farms enable
sustainable management of the world’s natural resources for future
generations.
This approach of a multifunctional agriculture supported by
Switzerland in its development cooperation is also anchored in
the Swiss Federal Constitution for the development of agriculture
in Switzerland. Therefore it is based on long-term domestic
experience:
Article 104 of the constitution states that the confederation shall
ensure that the agricultural sector, by means of a sustainable and
market oriented production policy, makes an essential contribution
towards:
a. the reliable provision of the population with foodstuffs
b. the conservation of natural resources and the upkeep
of the countryside
c. decentralized population settlement of the country.
S
ome 70 per cent of the people living in poverty
around the world live in rural areas and depend
to a large extent on agriculture for their livelihood.
mallholders produce about 50 per cent of the food
worldwide and 500 million small farms are located in
developing countries, where hunger is most prevalent.
The small production entities of family farms have many
advantages such as their higher diversity for nutrition, biodi-
versity conservation and resilience, their knowledge of the
local production system, and their role for social security in
times of crisis. The family farming system also has challenges:
producing for a growing urban population increases the need
for bulked produce, and inputs are provided cheaper and
easier to bigger entities. In tackling these challenges produc-
ers organizations have an important role to play.
The future of viable family farms will strongly depend on
their ability to organize themselves for:
• accessing production inputs, financial and information
services and output markets
• the sustainable use of natural resources
• raising the concerns of family farms in policy debates at
different levels and influencing decision-makers.
Family farms are able to produce healthy food for well-
balanced diets, but they need to be provided with an enabling
environment. Farmers’ organizations have a key role to
play in that respect but they need to be well governed and
oriented towards the members’ needs. That is why supporting
viable and strong farmers’ organizations is one clear focus of
Switzerland’s engagement in favour of productive, profitable,
socially adapted and ecologically responsible family farms.
Family farms are entities for agricultural, forestry, fisheries,
pastoral and aquaculture production which are managed and
operated by a family and predominantly reliant on non-waged
family labour, including both women’s and men’s. They play
an important role in food production, job creation and rural
development in general. However, family farms face a series
of challenges on the way to realizing their potential in food
production and for rural development.
In comparison to large-scale agriculture, smallholder
farmers’ productivity is about one third lower. This low
productivity is the result of a decade-long neglect of family
farmers in local and global political and economic policy.
Their small size, the rising pressure on natural resources
and their low political power further contribute to this lower
productivity. Strong farmers’ organizations are essential to
Producers’ organizations have an important role to play in tackling the
challenges that face family farmers
Image: Markus Buerli, SDC
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