STRENGTHENING SMALL SCALE FARMING IN AFRICA

Family farming contributes 80% of food production and employs between 60% and 70% of the population in Africa. However, it is faced with increasing challenges, including climate change, an aging labour force, market volatility, and low incentives to small holder farmers. The family production model is marginalised in favour of large-scale commercial farming which provides higher returns for private investors. However, small-scale farming continues to produce the majority of the world’s food and is a major investor in the agricultural sector and the foundation of the local business and economic structure of Africa’s rural areas.

"We position family farming on the political agenda at the national, regional and continental levels."

Improve the participation of farmers’ organisations in land reform processes, ensuring fair and responsible investments for better living conditions for family farmers. Position family farming on the political agenda at the national, regional, and continental levels.

1. Build alliances with other initiatives focused on family farming, especially the UN Decade of Family Farming
2. Strengthen continental coordination between networks of farmer organisations by reinforcing members’ organisational and managerial capacities
3. Strengthen capacities of country leaders and journalists to promote knowledge and awareness of family farming at both practice and policy level.

In 2019 after a study commissioned by the Initiative, ground-breaking lessons were delivered on how to maximise the impact of ongoing land reform processes in 15 countries across West and Central Africa. Fifty farmer leaders were trained on how to use dialogic techniques and advocacy to negotiate access to land for farmers. The training empowered farmer unions on the use of multi-stakeholder platforms across Cameroon and Togo to engage governments and local authorities on land rights cases for family farmers.

Later that year, the results of the study informed the regional action plan on the UN Decade of Family Farming for Central Africa, developed in collaboration with the Economic Community of Central African States and Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa.

Coordinated by Pan African Confederation of Farmers’ Organisation (PAFO), the Initiative includes International Land Coalition members such as: Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions, Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, Network of Farmers’ and Producers’ Organizations (ROPPA), Plateforme Régionale des Organisations Paysannes d'afrique Centrale (PROPAC) and Maghrebian and North African Farmers Union (UMNAGRI).