small-scale farming

Many millions of people in poor countries will go hungry when future global food crises strike - unless the world's half a billion small-scale farmers receive urgent funding and support from the UK and other governments.

Fertile Ground, a report published by Progressio in November 2009, warns that decades of neglect by governments of small-scale farmers have stretched poor farming communities to breaking point, requiring urgent action.

Why? Because our global food system is in crisis. The number of hungry people on our planet is rising steadily and for the first time in history has now passed the 1 billion mark.

Small-scale farmers feed 2 billion people worldwide - a third of humanity. With the right support, they can feed many more.

"Small-scale farming guarantees us food," says farmer Carlos Ruiz in Ecuador. "We have more food to eat, more food to sell," says Grace in Malawi. Small-scale farmers like Carlos and Grace provide a food security buffer against outside shocks, supplying poor communities with local food at local prices in countries like Ecuador and Malawi.

Yet they face a growing number of threats to their ability to earn a living, provide food for their families and cope with future food crises.

Governments must face the facts and take action to support small-scale farmers now in order to be confident of feeding the estimated 9.2 billion people who will share our planet by 2050.

Download a copy of the report 'Fertile Ground' now:

Small Scale Farming report (557k PDF) Small Scale Farming report 'Fertile Ground' (557k PDF)