The World Agriculture Watch at the service of farming

What are the challenges facing farmers around the world?

Agriculture is a weak spot in food systems, as it remains neglected by public policies and by consumers. Promises of great modernization programs aiming at decreasing food insecurity and undernutrition in developing countries are not being fulfilled.

Neither are there any real international regulatory systems: the UN offers a shared framework for discussions and negotiations, but it doesn’t have the authority to make decisions.

Furthermore, the phenomenon of land grabbing persists. Some countries negotiate rights of use outside of their domestic territories with countries of the Global South. This is the case with China and Gulf countries. When it comes to agriculture, preserving land ownership is essential, but there is a lack of restrictive tools to ban this type of agreement between governments and private economic actors. Thus, foreign production models are imposed at the expense of traditional systems of farming and natural resource management.

In the long run, farmers must face climate disruptions. While the capacities for action are limited, the effects can be mitigated by changing practices, and this is what is at stake with agroecology. In addition to these challenges, difficulties arise when trying to reach a consensus on the urgent need to change the intensive farming model. For decades, this model has been depleting water resources, destroying soils and durably affecting biodiversity.

How does the World Agriculture Watch aim to address these challenges?

WAW is an initiative spearheaded by France since 2011 and housed by the UN’s FAO, in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD).

WAW’s mission is to report on the diversity of farming operations throughout the world to better adapt public policies and investment strategies, and meet the challenges mentioned above. WAW relies on the production, use and sharing of data, in collaboration with farmers’ and producers’ organizations.

We primarily focus on family farming, because it remains ubiquitous and essential. Most of the global food production comes from it: in 500 million farms – 90% of the total –, one family owns the capital and works the operation. WAW’s activities fit the United Nation’s Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028, which aims to protect these farms and develop the kind of agriculture they practice.

Field surveys are the most effective way to access information, even if the data are sometimes not accessible or of variable quality. For example, for Africa, only one in five countries had recent figures in 2021.

We will soon publish WAW’s operational guidelines: not only will this technical tool offer a methodological framework for actors who need it, but we also want to use it as a communication medium to mobilise decision-makers and investors, and to develop other projects.

What is the interest for local actors?

WAW is a tool that can adapt to the needs of individual countries, thanks to its increased knowledge of farming operations’ diversity. It can facilitate the development of more effective strategies. Representative organizations can also benefit from a better understanding of their members and thereby strengthen their advocacy.

At a more macro level, WAW manages other more ambitious programs, such as the “50 by 2030” project, in partnership with the World Bank and IFAD. It aims to enable the 50 least advanced countries to develop information systems on their agriculture so that they can report on their commitments regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for the decade.

The takeaway is that agriculture is diverse and multifaceted: it is faced with multiple challenges, and to support the desired food system transformations towards more sustainability and resilience, farming policies must be adapted by considering farm diversity. Increasing knowledge quality is an important issue for a development institution. As a WAW coordinator, my main role is to develop partnerships and to communicate about our tool, to generate interest among other actors, technical and financial mostly, who could potentially support it.

Interview conducted in May 2024.