International Year of Family Farming-2014

There are many events taking place in the International Year of Family Farming-2014. The small scale food producers will be in the main agenda this year as IYFF as well as the Small Scale Fisheries Guidelines which will be adopted in July 2014 at COFI at FAO, Rome. These are important as the small scale food producer organizations take these up as important mobilizations of their members. I would like to quote from the IYFF web site to give precise information to you. Please see them as below; Family Farming According to the FAO, is a "way of organising forestry and agricultural production, as well as fishing, grazing and aquaculture, which is managed and conducted by a family and which largely depends on the family labour force, both men and women. The family and exploitation are linked, they co-evolve and combine economic, environmental, reproductive, social and cultural functions". When speaking of Family Farming we also refer to artisanal fishing people, shepherds, harvesters, landless day-labourers and indigenous communities. The IYFF-2014 is the first International Year preceded by a Civil Society campaign, promoted by the WRF and backed by more than 360 civil and farmers’ organisation in five continents. After its declaration by the General Assembly of the United Nations, the Civil Society promoted its celebration as a tool to obtain public policies in favour of the sustainable development of agricultural systems based on the family unit: all of this with a commitment and spirit of cooperation with the official programme of the United Nations, organised by the FAO.