Sida supports ILEIA in its efforts to promote sustainable family farming

Today 400 million family farmers worldwide are supporting one third of humanity with food, shelter and income. They often do so with limited means and under ever-more challenging circumstances. Climate change, foreign land acquisitions, the migration of young adults to urban areas, and other factors, all threaten the future viability of family farming. The loss of this productive workforce will worsen global and regional food security as well as biodiversity.

For twenty seven years ILEIA has been promoting agro-ecological farming methods and enabling small scale farmers to improve their economic position and future farming prospects. In doing so, ILEIA is contributing to the creation of a ‘smart lane’ in agricultural development, one that respects the rights of small-scale producers and nature and that supports sustainable development.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has signed a five year contract to support ILEIA, an independent knowledge centre on sustainable agriculture based in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Sida will invest 30 million Swedish Kroner (3.5 million Euro) in ILEIA’s global knowledge sharing strategy to support sustainable family farming worldwide. Through processes of knowledge building, starting from the grassroots level, new perspectives for sustainable development will be created and up-scaled.

Today, half a million farmers, agricultural practitioners, scientists and policymakers read and contribute to ILEIA’s magazine Farming Matters, in either its printed or electronic version; by 2016 the number will have grown to 2.5 million. Special efforts will be made to engage rural women and youth, as they hold the key to the future of family farming. ILEIA will also scale up its support to agricultural education. Together with its AgriCultures Network partners in Latin America, Africa and Asia, ILEIA will step up policy advocacy efforts for sustainable family farming.

At present the network is actively involved in the preparations for the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in June. Sida’s support is of strategic importance, helping ILEIA to build strong alliances with farmers’ organisations and agricultural institutions, and to strengthen its role in upscaling agro-ecological practices.

For more information, contact Edith van Walsum: e.van.walsum@ileia.org