United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Subject – Environment

Context – Dramatic changes needed in global food systems to address nutrition disparity, poverty: IFAD

Concept –

Transforming global food systems to become more inclusive, fair and sustainable may seem an insurmountable challenge, but there are concrete actions policymakers can take, IFAD noted during the release of its Transforming Food Systems for Rural Prosperity report.
Small-scale family farmers are still the foundation of food supply across all low- and middle-income countries, the report highlighted. “They play a critical role in reducing rural poverty and ensuring national food and nutrition security.”
It called for investing in and creating conditions for productive, economically viable and environmentally sustainable small-scale family farming.
A majority of people in rural areas earn their livelihoods from working in small-scale agriculture, which is a vital source of national and global food. In fact, farms of up to two hectares produce 31 per cent of the world’s food on less than 11 per cent of the farmland.
Food systems are responsible for 37 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and are also highly vulnerable to a changing climate, according to the paper.

About International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) –

It is an international financial institution and a specialised agency of the United Nations that works to address poverty and hunger in rural areas of developing countries.
It is the only multilateral development organization that focuses solely on rural economies and food security.
Headquartered in Rome, Italy, IFAD is involved in over 200 projects across nearly 100 countries.
It funds and sponsors initiatives that improve land and water management, develop rural infrastructure, train and educate farmers in more efficient technologies, build up resilience against climate change, enhancing market accessibility, and more.
IFAD has 177 member states and works in partnership with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).