In collaboration with its partners, FAO is working to:
- support the development of agricultural, environmental and social policies in favour of sustainable family farming;
- increase public knowledge and awareness;
- increase the knowledge concerning family farming and its potential/limits and guarantee technical support;
- create synergies to promote sustainability.
Family farming is connected to food safety and includes various elements: from a sociological point of view, it is associated with family values such as solidarity and commitment, whereas from an economical point of view, it is identified by specific entrepreneurial and management capabilities.
In industrial and developing countries, family farming is the main form of food production and it includes all agricultural activities managed by a family.
There are over 570 million commercial farms worldwide, over 500 million of which are managed by families and are responsible for 56% of the global agricultural production.
According to a FAO study on "Apple-producing family farms in South Tyrol: an agriculture innovation case study", apple production in Alto Adige is the perfect example of an innovation system based on family-run agriculture. It is a collaborative structure that combines private and public actors, producer organisations, cooperatives and research with the objective of integrating all small apple producers in an effective system.
Apple production is nowadays one of the main family farming activities in Alto Adige, covering 19,000 hectares. Up to 95% of farmers are members of cooperatives, supplying 50% of the apples on the Italian market, 15% on the European one and 2% globally.
Since the end of WWII, the various subjects involved in the production and sale of apples have formed an efficient network for sustainable agriculture (LINSA). The most important members of LINSA are apple cooperatives.
The formal mechanisms supporting the network are:
- at a political level - the provincial government supports apple producers (they are exonerated from paying certain taxes) and grants financial aid to certain cooperatives;
- at an institutional level - the cooperatives, an important part of LINSA, are supported by AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems). In addition, innovation platforms such as AGRIOS or SK have been created;
- at a personal level - the competences and motivation of the people part of LINSA are a strong component of the network's development.
There are also many informal mechanisms. For example, many apple producers use all networks available to exchange ideas and 90% of interviewed apple producers explains how a primary source of knowledge is farmer-to-farmer word of mouth.
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