the mif blog

Small farmers in Latin America deal with knowledge and technology access barriers whenever they try to adapt their productive systems to climate change: irrigation, pest-resistant seed varieties, and best practices are sometimes unknown or out of reach of rural areas. In other cases, additional barriers are present, such as access to land and entry into high-value markets. For countries like Guatemala, these issues become particularly challenging: the country has 12% of its total agricultural area made of land holdings smaller than one hectare (the highest percentage in Latin America, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization). In addition, 51.5% of the country’s young and predominantly female population (66.5% of the population is younger than 30 years old and 51% are women, according to Guatemala’s National Institute of Statistics) still lives in rural areas and is mostly dedicated to agriculture.

“Para quien no sabe a dónde quiere ir, todos los caminos sirven.” Esta frase podría describir muchas de las iniciativas de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial (RSE) que se implementaron cuando el concepto era nuevo. ¿A que me refiero con esto? 

 
Sabías que...

• En el mundo existen 500 millones de granja familiares. 
• La agricultura familiar en Latinoamérica incluye alrededor de 60 millones de personas. En México casi cada segunda persona trabaja en agricultura, y en Brazil cada tercera.
• La edad promedio del jefe de la granja es de 50 años.
  

In the Latin America and Caribbean region, there are about 15 million family farms, 35% of which rely solely on agricultural activities for their livelihood. Through the “Linking Small Farmers to High-Value Agriculture Markets” agenda, MIF has focused its efforts in providing support to smallholder farmers with the belief that agriculture and food are promising industries that could present a solid business opportunity and a stable income-generating activity for smallholder farmers when they are sustainably linked to local, regional or global markets.

English version