As dawn breaks over the Ororubá Mountains in Pernambuco, Brazil, Indigenous youth from the Xukuru do Ororubá people work in a nursery, reviving native plant species, especially those with medicinal value. Led by Ângela Neves Pereira (“Bella”), they aim to restore not just the land but their cosmogony, identity, culture and balance. Since 2023, the Xukuru people and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have collaborated on Indigenous Peoples' biocentric restoration, a method that prioritizes the well-being of all living things within an ecosystem. Supported by Brazil’s government and FAO’s AIM4Forests programme, this initiative enhances Indigenous knowledge and aims to restore at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.

A small-scale farming initiative, launched in May 2025 by FAO and funded through the OPT Humanitarian Fund, has provided urgently needed cash assistance to farmers in Gaza to restart vegetable production. One beneficiary, 60-year-old Susan Allaham, returned to cultivation on her land in Khan Younis after the war halted her farming for years. Respite extreme challenges — lack of inputs (fertilizer, seeds, pesticides), damaged land, high prices, and a broader food-security collapse after two years of conflict — about 200 farmers are now growing vegetables again, offering a small “seed of hope.” Vegetables are seen as vital sources of vitamins and nourishment, especially for children and pregnant women. However, as of mid-October 2025, only about 4 % of Gaza’s agricultural land remained accessible and intact, underscoring how limited this recovery is. For farmers like Susan, this cultivation is their only means of livelihood, and if conditions — including the ceasefire — hold, they plan to expand production farther, reclaiming their land and supporting their families.

Family farms, when backed by smart public and blended financing, can become powerful drivers of food security, rural prosperity and climate resilience.

Agriculture and food security face severe threats from increasing disasters, which have caused an estimated $3.26 trillion in losses over the past 33 years, about $99 billion annually. A new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlights how digital technologies are enhancing risk monitoring and response. It provides a comprehensive assessment of how various disasters disrupt food production and nutrition. Digital innovations are facilitating a shift from reactive crisis management to proactive resilience-building, with tools such as parametric insurance and early warning systems enabling communities to mitigate risks effectively.

UN agencies warn that acute food insecurity is set to worsen in 16 countries and territories in the coming months, urging immediate humanitarian action in hunger hotspots. Here are five key facts.

Around the world, small-scale farmers are pushing our food systems to evolve. They’re the key to producing enough safe, nutritious food to feed the world sustainably. 

In this episode, we explore how IFAD works hand in hand with rural communities to build a more nourishing future. Learn how innovative agroecology projects are driving economic growth and hear directly from IFAD’s President, Alvaro Lario, about how school meals are inextricably linked to resilient local food systems.  

The Potato Park, situated in a centre of origin of crops, safeguards Andean agrobiodiversity and knowledge. Communities in the park combine conservation with sustainable use, including through indigenous seed production. They exchange genetic resources, expertise and practices with other communities around the world. In 2015, Indigenous Andean communities from the Potato Park deposited 750 potato seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The deposit was the result of a Benefit-sharing Fund project supported by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This video reflects on the deposit to Svalbard and how the same Benefit-sharing Fund project has been essential for establishing a local seed bank, that today protects 1,367 native potato varieties and serves more than 5,000 farmers.

Lanzarote’s volcanic terrain seems barren, yet farmers grow crops like grapes, sweet potatoes, and strawberries using traditional methods. After eruptions from 1730–1736 buried farmland, locals adapted with ash-mulch and sand-mulch techniques that conserve moisture and enrich soil. In La Geria, grapevines thrive in volcanic hollows protected by stone walls. These practices, covering 12,000+ hectares, earned Lanzarote recognition in 2025 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity.

Juliana walks through her thriving garden, now nourished by a solar-powered irrigation system that combats drought. Once struggling after her husband’s death, she faced challenges like failed rains and poor harvests in Baixa da Missão, Angola. To improve her situation, she joined the Chitaka Farmer Field School (FFS), part of the European Union-funded FRESAN programme. This community learning initiative, in partnership with the Agrarian Development Institute and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), has trained over 7,425 smallholder farmers in the region, empowering them to grow food consistently despite climate uncertainties.

Achieving gender equality is essential to ending poverty, hunger, and tackling climate change. Rural women, who produce nearly half of the world’s food while safeguarding the environment, are key in this effort. Yet, they still face deep inequalities while sustaining their families through unpaid work.  This International Day of Rural Women (15 October), under the theme “The Rise of Rural Women: Building Resilient Futures with Beijing+30”,  calls for their rights and full participation - reflecting the spirit of Beijing+30,  a global commitment to gender equality for all women, everywhere.

Peru is a leading producer of coffee and cocoa, ranking fifth and seventh globally, respectively. These crops are mainly grown by small farmers on the Andean slopes, supporting over 200,000 coffee and 100,000 cocoa families. Cocoa cultivation has been actively promoted as an alternative to illegal coca leaf production, leading to a significant expansion from 41,000 hectares in 2000 to 177,000 hectares today. However, both sectors face challenges like low competitiveness, poor sustainability, and limited access to training and financial services. Most family farms are small, and producers often rely on traditional practices, resulting in low yields and contributing to deforestation. High-quality producers are scarce, and market prices are volatile. Additionally, an aging population continues to bear the burden of agricultural labor in these communities.

Magdalena Laine, a 59-year-old farmer from the Kichwa Indigenous Peoples in Ecuador, prepares maize flour before dawn for the La Pachamama nos alimenta (Mother Earth feeds us) agroecological market, where around 300 Kichwa women sell their produce. While Magdalena works with maize, her daughter Verónica and the family prepare fresh vegetables, lemons, lupins, quinoa and eggs that they will sell at the fair. Despite farming challenges and climate change, Kichwa women have maintained food security through their biodiverse farms, known as chakras, recognized as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Morning light shines on Praia das Conchas Roça in São Tomé as Camila Varela De Carvalho, a 32-year-old cocoa farmer, sends her eight children to school before heading to her farm. With a harvesting tool, she collects ripe cocoa pods, crucial for her family's income. Camila, who also works at the Organic Cocoa Production and Export Cooperative (CECAB), helps improve local livelihoods through sustainable cocoa practices. Supported by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), CECAB has become the largest cooperative in São Tomé, benefiting over 2,000 families and enabling Camila to cover living expenses and her children's education.

After her mother passed, Seuy Phok managed her fields alone while raising her child. For over four decades, she harvested rice using traditional methods in northwestern Cambodia. However, unpredictable rains in recent years have made farming challenging, leading to crop damage. Four years ago, heavy rainfall devastated her rice fields. Seuy then joined the "Promoting Climate-Resilient Livelihoods in Rice-based Communities" project by the FAO, which provided her with high-quality seeds and sustainable farming training. As a result, her yields doubled, allowing her to sell both rice and seeds.