The World Rural Forum, representing over 350 million farmer families around the world, in an open letter on Monday expressed its concern over global food security, saying that risks are pending unless the government "boosts adaptation finance for small-scale production and promotes a shift to more diverse, low-input agriculture," India's Times Now reported.
The forum includes 200 million small-scale producers from Africa, the Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Development, and many others.
The letter came hours before the UN Climate Summit (COP27) in Egypt, with 90 representatives of states meeting to discuss food security and climate finance.
The letter stressed that "the global food system is ill-equipped to deal with the impacts of climate change, even if we limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius," adding that "building a food system" should be the top priority at COP27.
The letter also points out that small-scale producers produce up to "80% of the food eaten in places like Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa".
In 2018, they contributed up to 1.7 percent (or $10 billion) of climate finance flows, as "opposed to the $240 billion they are thought to require annually to support climate change adaptation."
Food and agriculture have been sidelined in climate negotiations and the concerns of small-holder producers ignored.
"Small-scale family farmers need a seat at the table and a say in the decisions that affect us -- from secure access to land and tenure, to accessing finance -- if we are to rebuild our broken food system," Laura Lorenzo, Director of the World Rural Forum, said.
Although the hunger graph has declined till 2019, from 2019 to 2022, the number of undernourished people grew by as many as 150 million.