“Policy interventions that aim at encouraging greater levels of smallholder production for sale in markets need to take better account of the heterogeneity of smallholder households,” said David Hallam, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Trade and Markets Division.

In the foreword to the report, Smallholder Integration in Changing Food Markets, Hallam added that just as smallholders are a heterogeneous group, the markets in which they participate are also diverse in terms of their size, geographic location, connectivity to other markets, power relations between market players, and institutional setting.

The report notes that with greater market integration and more inclusive value chains, small farmers are more likely to adopt new technologies required to achieve productivity growth.

Stressing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the two main ways to link farmers with markets is to provide them with better access to credit and insurance, and to strengthen the links between farmers and buyers.

Farmers will not expend more time, money and energy in producing more, if any surplus will likely go to waste because there is no storage, no transport or, possibly, no market within a reasonable distance, Hallam said.

“The risk that any money spent to produce more will be lost is too great a risk for poor farmers to run,” he added.

The report also notes a paradox of high food prices. Seen by some policymakers as an opportunity for farmers to produce more and earn more, the response by many farmers has been muted.

“High levels of price, production risks and uncertainty, and limited access to tools to manage them deter investment in more productive new technologies that would enable smallholders to produce surpluses for sale in markets,” according to the report.

It also highlights the negative consequence of inadequate infrastructure, high costs of storage and transportation, and non-competitive markets.

In addition to more tailored policies, the report also highlights the role of the public sectors and international development partners to promote better policies for small farmers.

“Slow Food and FAO share the same vision of a sustainable and hunger-free world, safeguarding biodiversity for future generations,” said FAO, Director-General José Graziano da Silva, signing a three-year Memo of Understanding with Slow Food. “The agreement, providing for a number of important joint initiatives, brings us a step closer to that objective.”

Under the agreement, FAO and Slow Food will join forces “to promote more inclusive food and agricultural systems at local, national and international levels,” according to a news release the Rome-based agency sent today.

The project, which can help conserve the use of neglected crops, and reduce food losses and waste, can also help produce inventories of local, indigenous and underutilized species that are potentially important to food security, the UN agency noted.

The collaboration will also focus on adding value to animal products and boosting incomes for farmers and others in the food chain, as well as providing better access to markets for small farmers by strengthening producers’ organizations and cooperatives.

The new agreement will build on projects FAO already has underway, including the Hunger-Free Africa initiative grouping FAO, African Union and Brazil’s Instituto Lula to eradicate hunger from the continent starting with four countries – Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi and Niger.

Another possible area for collaboration is support to rural women through the ongoing Dimitra project run by FAO, the European Commission and Belgium. This participatory information and communication project highlights women’s key role in food production so that their interests are better taken into consideration.

According to the news release, FAO is also looking into the possible development of toolkits for the international Education of Rural People (ERP) Partnership, which aims to remove existing constraints and ensure education and skills training for all rural people.

FAO said in a news release that the speed of communication and accuracy of the global positioning system (GPS) function integrated on mobile phones is of great advantage for farmers who are increasingly using this technology.

“FAO and partners are piggy-backing on this enormous uptake of mobile phone technology for uses in reporting animal disease outbreaks, tracking vaccination campaigns and the delivery of veterinary treatments, such as de-worming animals,” said FAO’s Assistant Representative for Programme Implementation in the country, Robert Allport.

Three out of four people have a mobile phone in Kenya and while only a third of Kenyans have access to the Internet, 99 per cent of this comes from mobile phones.

Mr. Allport said the widespread adoption of this technology has revolutionized the livestock sector, as up until five years ago veterinarians had to travel to remote locations to record data and then again to process the paperwork.

“Cellular phones eliminate delays in receiving field data, since all the information is relayed via the mobile network,” Mr. Allport said.

FAO recently partnered with the Royal Veterinary College and Vetaid, local non-governmental organization, to support the testing of EpiCollect, a mobile phone application that helps track animal vaccination and treatment campaigns.

The application would allow users to access and monitor vaccination data in real-time, and could potentially be made available not just to veterinarians but to animal health workers and village elders.

FAO has also developed an information system to display data on disease outbreaks that would allow for an early warning system to isolate infected animals and prevent the death of tens of thousands of livestock. The system, known as EMPRES-i will be tested in Uganda this year.

“The FAO EMPRES-i system is truly a global public good, and our reporting and response times are being constantly improved, now thanks to incredible technology,” said Juan Lubroth, FAO’s Chief Veterinary Officer. “Prevention, preparedness and early response are powerful concepts that when translated into tools can be effectively used against infectious diseases, thereby safeguard people’s livelihoods, fend off hunger and, in some cases, human illness,” he added.

In addition, FAO has partnered with Oxfam and Nokia to monitor water points in pastoralist areas as an early warning indicator for drought in Kenya and Ethiopia, and is assessing how mobile technology can be used to better link livestock producers with markets and livestock traders.

“Traders won’t travel to a remote area to purchase animals unless they have a guarantee that they will be able to buy a minimum number of animals. Otherwise, the expense of making the trip isn’t worthwhile,” Mr. Allport said. “But if sellers at market can relay information to a central point about how many animals they have, where and at what price, then the market functions more efficiently and pricing becomes more transparent. They can also collectively bargain for better prices.”

A UN mission undertaken from 18 to 22 January found that cereal, fruit and vegetable production has been halved in some areas, which have also seen massive destruction of irrigation and other infrastructure, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“The mission was struck by the plight of the Syrian people whose capacity to cope is dramatically eroded by 22 months of crisis,” said Dominique Burgeon, Director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, who joined with representatives of six other UN agencies in the mission led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“Destruction of infrastructure in all sectors is massive and it is clear that the longer the conflict will last, the longer it will take to rehabilitate it,” he added.

Affected areas in the capital, Damascus, as well as in the governorates of Homs and Dera’a were visited by the mission, which was coordinated with both the Government and the opposition.

The mission found that vegetable, fruit and olive production declined significantly in both Homs and Dera’a governorates, including a 60 per cent drop in vegetable production in Homs and a 40 per cent drop in olive oil production in Dera’a.

The production of poultry, a traditional source of cheap animal protein, has also been severely hit with major farms destroyed in Homs, Hama and Idlib.

In addition, movement of livestock to grazing areas has not been possible and their survival is compromised by the lack of animal feed and veterinary drugs, the importation of which is hampered by sanctions.

Of the 10 million Syrians who live in rural areas – about 46 per cent of the population – 80 per cent derive their livelihoods from agriculture, according to FAO, and the sector is critical for the survival of millions during the crisis.

“It is clear from discussions with NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and technical officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, that security conditions permitting, agriculture has a huge role to play in helping people to stay on their land and generate income to cope with their most urgent needs,” Mr. Burgeon said.

“They however need urgent agricultural support in terms of seeds, fertilizers, animal feed, veterinary drugs, poultry and rehabilitation of irrigation infrastructure,” he said.

Meanwhile, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, who last week sounded the alarm over catastrophic humanitarian conditions in Syria at the UN Security Council, brought her plea for an urgent ramp-up of aid to Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum has convened.

Relaying the results of the multi-agency mission, she said that agency representatives were shocked at what they saw. “They were very clear that the effect of nearly two years of conflict has had a terrible impact on people, especially on children.

“I repeat: four million people need help, two million are internally displaced and 400,000 out of 500,000 Palestinian refugees have been affected,” she said.

She said that despite the dangerous environment that humanitarian partners faced, they were making a difference. “But it is not enough, especially as we cannot keep pace with the rising number of people in acute need,” she stressed.

“We need more people, we need more partners and we need to be able to deliver more quickly,” she added, noting that the humanitarian community had also requested $1.5 billion to help displaced people and their host communities in Syria and neighbouring countries for the next six months.

A funding conference for humanitarian aid for Syria is planned for 30 January in Kuwait, to be hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Emir of that country, she noted.

“We hope that the conference will yield the resources we need,” she said.

The $612,000 programme, which will be implemented with the support of France and South Sudan’s ministry of agriculture, will target several states for one year, training farmers in the production, storage and marketing of quality seeds and cuttings of staple crops such as maize, cassava, cowpeas and sorghum.

“The importance of seeds to the food security and livelihoods of South Sudan’s farmers and rural communities is very high,” said the head of the Food and Agriculture (FAO) office in Juba, Sue Lautze. “Despite widespread food insecurity, the country is committed to ensuring food security for all, as soon as possible. Seeds are a critical component to realizing this important ambition.”

According to FAO, decades of conflict and displacement have taken their toll on farmers’ access to quality seeds and other planting materials, and eroded their knowledge of seed production techniques, which undermine crop productivity.

Today, more than 90 per cent of South Sudanese farmers still depend on the informal seed system, which is based primarily on saved seeds, social networks, and local markets. Typically, farmers use saved seeds from one season to the next, which lessens the genetic purity of the seed.

The programme will increase the availability and quality of seeds to South Sudan’s most vulnerable farmers in the states of Central Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Lakes, Western Bahr el Ghazal and Northern Bahr el Ghazal. It will also provide assistance to 400 seed producers.

“Through the project, FAO aims to not only reduce the number of households affected by food insecurity through improving the availability and access of locally produced quality seed on the market, but also aims to improve the incomes and capacity of seed producers,” said the Project Officer with FAO South Sudan, Joseph Okidi.

The project will include seed fairs, capacity development for seed enterprises, and training for farmers. It will also increase the amount of land dedicated to quality-seed multiplication, which is currently very limited.

In 2011, FAO and France implemented a similar programme in South Sudan, which led to the production of more than 350 tons of quality seeds and planting materials, and injected some $300,000 into the local economy. With the new programme, the agency is hoping to build on the previous success.

Speaking at a week-long meeting of the World Cooperatives Congress in Manchester, England, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, told gathered delegates that cooperatives can help small- and medium-scale farmers and fishermen add value to their production and gain access to wider markets.

“Cooperatives follow core values and principles that are critical to doing business in an equitable manner, that seeks to empower and benefits its members and the community it is inserted in,” said Graziano da Silva.

“This is especially relevant in poor rural communities, where joining forces is central to promoting sustainable local development,” he added.

Graziano da Silva stated that in a world that produces enough food for all and despite gains in the fight against hunger, it was “unacceptable” that close to 870 million people continue to suffer from chronic malnutrition. He further stated that greater cooperativization would help reduce hunger and poverty across poor rural communities.

“Whether you are in the UK, Brazil, Kenya, Thailand, or Nepal, cooperatives help to generate employment, boost national economies and reduce poverty,” he noted. “This, in turn, helps to improve food security.”

The FAO chief emphasized that his agency was committed to fostering the growth of agricultural cooperatives around the world and hinted at the appointment of special ambassadors for cooperatives to promote the issue, as well as develop approaches, guidelines, methodologies and training tools on organizational development and policy.

Moreover, he called on those gathered to contribute to the global plan of action expected to emerge from events held in honour of the International Year of Cooperatives – a year-long celebration currently being observed in 2012.

In a media statement, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that its Swaziland Agricultural Development Project, or SADP, had already begun to have an impact on the lives of the country’s smallholder farmers through a number of training initiatives and agricultural development projects designed to increase productivity and competitiveness on the global food markets.

“You cannot tackle rural poverty if you don’t put the smallholder farmers first,” said the SADP’s Chief Technical Advisor, Nehru Essomba, in an FAO news release.

Launched in 2009, in tandem with the Government of Swaziland and the European Union, which has provided 14 million euros in funding to the project, the SADP has also focussed on raising the nutrition levels among the landlocked nation’s rural population as well as stimulating their economic output.

A total of 340 vegetable gardens have also been established for vulnerable families to grow vegetables and herbs for household consumption, with over 2,000 people directly benefiting. Moreover, the programme has helped some 2,500 young people set up their businesses in poultry farming, pig production, or vegetable and field crop production.

Swaziland has long been dealing with various social and economic difficulties. Consecutive years of drought, a devastating AIDS pandemic, decades of economic slowdown, and the precipitous rise in global food prices and agricultural inputs have made it increasingly hard for Swaziland’s rural population, which is highly dependent on subsistence farming, to make a living.

According to the FAO’s most recent statistics on the issue, almost 20 per cent of the country’s population of one million is undernourished.

“Connecting farmers to the market is a major challenge,” Essomba said, noting that the proximity of South Africa, with its large scale agricultural producers, also posed a problem for Swaziland’s farmers. In response to this added challenge, the SADP is setting up a one million euro Marketing Investing Fund to promote niche crops that offer small farmers a comparative advantage in the market.

In addition, the initiative is also working to spread good agricultural practices crucial for farming productivity, but also with an interest in preserving the environment and lessening the pressure on Swaziland’s limited resources. According to the FAO news release, more than 2,000 farmers have already been educated in a wide range of practices including conservation agriculture and agro-forestry.

Carried out by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Syria’s Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform in June, the Joint Rapid Food Security Needs Assessment mission’s report stresses that out of the three million Syrians in need of assistance, 1.5 million are in urgent need of food aid over the next three to six months, especially in areas that have seen the greatest conflict and population displacement.

Syria has been wracked by violence, with more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 16 months ago. Over recent days, there have been reports of an escalation in violence in many towns and villages, as well as the country’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

The joint mission’s report estimates that Syria’s agricultural sector has lost $1.8 billion as a result of the ongoing conflict. The crisis has led to damage to crops, livestock and irrigation systems. Basic crops such as wheat and barley have been badly affected, as well as cherry and olive trees and vegetable production.

“While the economic implications of these losses are quite grave, the humanitarian implications are far more pressing,” said WFP’s Representative in Syria, Muhannad Hadi. “The effects of these major losses are first, and most viciously, felt by the poorest in the country. Most of the vulnerable families the mission visited reported less income and more expenditure – their lives becoming more difficult by the day.”

The assessment mission’s report also notes that large numbers of rural people of Syria’s central, coastal, eastern, north-eastern and southern governorates were found to have totally or partially lost their farming assets and livestock-based livelihoods and businesses, due to the ongoing political crisis and insecurity, combined with a prolonged drought.

“The most vulnerable families in Syria depend entirely or partly on agriculture and farm animals for food and income. They need emergency support, like seeds, repairs to irrigation systems, animal feed and healthcare,” said the FAO Representative in Syria, Abdulla BinYehia. “If timely assistance is not provided, the livelihood system of these vulnerable people could simply collapse in a few months’ time. Winter is fast approaching and urgent action is needed before then.”

Living conditions for farmers have become increasingly difficult, according to the assessment mission, with farmers being forced to leave crops unattended due to unavailability of labour, rise in fuel costs, insecurity and power cuts affecting water supply, augmenting the risk of losing crops if assistance is not provided.

Close to one million people are in need of seeds, food for animals, fuel and repair of irrigations pumps, the assessment says, stressing that particular attention needs to be given to female-headed households, migrant workers and small farmers.

WFP’s Hadi said that during the assessment mission’s visit to Al Hassakeh governorate in the country’s north-east, “even the richest family in a village reported having food stock for only one more month.”

WFP announced that it would scale up its emergency operation for Syria, which began in October, to reach 850,000 people this month and access badly affected areas. However, the operation is still facing a funding shortfall of about $62 million out of an overall budget of $103 million.

Meanwhile, FAO, which has provided assistance to some 82,000 people since December, aims to reach 900,000 people in rural households over the next six months to ensure they can continue planting and keeping their livestock. A budget of $38 million will be required for this, the agency said.