October 16 is World Food Day, a time to remember the over 800 million people around the world who don’t have enough to eat.
In particular, Canadian Foodgrains Bank recognizes the role that farmers and agriculture play in ending world hunger.
Here in Canada, less than two percent of people live on a farm these days. However, in the developing world, things are quite a bit different. Many people rely on agriculture as their main source of income.
For the majority of them, it’s not an easy life.
It’s a sad irony that most of the hungry people around the world are small-scale farmers who struggle to grow enough food on small plots of land to feed their families year-round.
And it’s why supporting such poor farmers in improving their farms can make such a difference.
“If Canada wants to achieve its development priorities of reducing poverty, empowering women, helping youth and fighting climate change, it should make investing in small-scale farming central to how it spends its foreign aid budget,” says Foodgrains Bank Public Policy Director Paul Hagerman.
Juana Medina Moralez, 63, is one example of such a farmer. She lives in the remote northern autonomous region of Nicaragua.
Traditionally, people in her community have planted the same way for generations. But with changing weather patterns and growing populations, producing enough food has become a challenge for them, and many families regularly experience hunger.
Moralez explains that she was tired of watching her family go to bed hungry at certain times of the year.
When training in agriculture and soil conservation was offered to her through a program of Foodgrains Bank member World Renew, she took advantage of the opportunity to learn and improve her farm.
Thanks to the training and the work she has put in, she says, “I am now able to harvest year-round.”
With the proceeds from her harvest, she is helping to send her grandchildren to high school.
Moralez is just one example of how investment in agriculture is changing lives.
The belief that supporting agriculture will help end hunger is why the Foodgrains Bank is part of a coalition of 31 relief and development organizations and nine experts in agriculture and food security taking that message to the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development.
“We recommend that Canada make a signature investment of $2.5 billion over five years to support sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation for small-scale farmers, especially women,” the coalition says in a statement published on its website www.aid4ag.ca.
On World Food Day, Canadians who share this concern for small-scale farmers in the developing world are invited to support this effort by signing a postcard to the Prime Minister urging such support.
Source : Canadian Foodgrains Bank