ActionAid's Fertile Ground campaign aims to highlight the role women farmers have to play in ending hunger and protecting vulnerable communities against global food crises.
Sign the petition now at www.lastfamine.org.au
The world's food system is broken
Hunger is a mad-made problem - literally. Over the past three decades, governments in low-income countries and aid donors alike have been ignoring the valuable role of women farmers and instead relying on large scale agri-businesses to feed their people. But it's just not working.
Decades of perverse policies that put all hope in the free-market and ignore the role of smallholder farmers has left close to a billion people chronically malnourished.
Soil degradation, climate change and loss of biodiversity has made the job of farmers tougher than ever, with climate change alone predicted to reduce yields in Africa by up to 50 percent.
Sign the petition now at www.lastfamine.org.au
Women farmers hold the key to food security
Smallholder farmers in low-income countries, the majority of whom are women, produce close to half the world's food, but have been systematically ignored by aid donors and their own governments.
As a result, close to three quarters of those going hungry in the world are actually smallholder farmers and rural landless people.
But a growing body of research shows investment in agriculture makes twice the impact on poverty as growth in other sectors and an African woman with the same access to land and inputs, produces 20 percent more food than their male counterparts.
In fact, countries that have invested in smallholder farmers have witnessed amazing results. When Malawi bucked the trend and started to invest in its agricultural sector, it managed to cut the number of its people requiring food aid from 4.5 million in 2004 to less than 150,000 by 2009.
Yet despite this growing body of evidence, aid programs continue to ignore the needs of women smallholder farmers.
The global tide is shifting, but not fast enough
Faced with increasing rates of hunger, governments in low-income countries and aid donors alike are beginning to recognise the failures of the current model and are starting to re-invest in agriculture.
However, investment by governments and aid donors has still not reached the levels needed to tackle hunger, and often overlooks smallholder farmers and the needs of women.
Sign the petition now at www.lastfamine.org.au
Australia has a key role to play
Australia has a unique opportunity to show leadership and push support for smallholder women farmers past the tipping point.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has already stated her desire for Australia to show leadership in agricultural aid and use our rich farming history to benefit developing countries. Australia was one of only a handful of countries to commit new money to the L'Aquila food security initiative and is a contributor to the innovative Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme.
And as a member of the G20 grouping of nations, Australia has a seat at the table of an increasingly influential decision making body on aid and development.
But despite positive signals of support for agricultural aid from Australia, the Government has yet to deliver on many of its promises.
It's time we all stood up for a more just global food system that doesn't leave a billion people hungry night after night.
