The United Nations is refocusing its agricultural investment over the next decade with a new financial plan: targeting small farm businesses in rural areas of some of the world’s poorest countries.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a U.N. agency based in Rome, Italy, plans to fund the small-scale food producers either directly or in collaboration with other financial institutions. The agency highlights that these small agricultural businesses help produce over half of the world’s food calories, yet most have no access to loans, and many live in work in communities suffering with increasing hunger and poverty.
IFAD President Gilbert G. Houngbo explains to the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the aim is to “tackle inter-related challenges of climate change, poverty and hunger in rural areas, where three-quarters of the poor and food-insecure people live”.
“Many others are working on climate finance,” he adds. “However, IFAD is the only one that specifically targets small-scale producers.”
