Background
More than 70 percent of poor people rely on agriculture for their income. But for the world’s estimated 400 million small-scale farmers, farming can also be a tremendously precarious way of life. From helping farmers survive changes in weather to ensuring that they receive a fair price for their crops, Oxfam helps make sure family farmers around the world can earn a decent living.
In the US and abroad, many of us rely on family farms for the food we eat, the fibers we wear, and the income that keeps us going. But small-scale farming is difficult work. Both time- and labor-intensive, running a farm also means risking drought, blight, and other factors that can wipe out a season's work in the blink of an eye. And these days, the same occupation that sustains the majority of people in developing countries has become more difficult than ever.
Here are just a few of the pressures now faced by family farmers around the world:
- Water shortages: Irrigation is essential for growing a good crop. But in Ethiopia, southern Africa, and beyond, chronic drought and water shortages threaten millions. Today, over one billion people lack access to a safe water supply.
- Globalization and trade: Family farmers in West Africa, for example, compete with much larger growers in the US and other industrialized countries. Fortified by government subsidies, these large growers can dump their products on foreign markets at prices below the cost of production.
- Climate change: Farmers from Peru to Cambodia are finding that even a slight shift in rainfall or temperature caused by global climate change can mean the loss of a season's harvest.
