Farmers’ organizations globally are having difficulty accessing climate funds, according to a report published last month.
Produced by Netherlands-based think tank Climate Focus on behalf of the Family Farmers for Climate Action, an alliance representing 50 million farmers globally, the report analyzed spending by two of the biggest U.N. funds offering finance for environment and climate-related initiatives: the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
The report reviewed 40 climate and biodiversity projects from both funds that listed farmers as beneficiaries and found that no financing went directly to small-scale family farmers or their organizations. Moreover, only 18% of the projects involved farmers in the decision-making, design and implementation of the projects.
“The two big climate funds don’t recognise the value of family farmer organisations,” Esther Penunia, secretary-general of the Asian Farmers Association, said in a press release.
“Their failure to work with us means they don’t benefit from our experience and expertise or our unique ability to scale up climate action across millions of family farms,” she said, adding that this is “holding back the fight against hunger and climate change.”
According to the report, small-scale farmers produce 70% of the food consumed in Africa and up to 80% in Asia, making them “central to global [food] supply chains.”
These farmers are also among the most affected by the impacts of climate change, especially extreme weather events, making it important for them to invest in adaptation strategies.
Despite this, from 2019-2022 only a third of the $2.6 billion allotted by the GEF and GCF for agriculture, fishing and forestry was used in support of sustainable and climate-resilient practices relevant to small-scale farmers, the report found.
Harsha Vishnumolakala, analyst at the global think tank Climate Policy Initiative, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay by email that even as global climate finance is increasing overall, the “annual average flows to small-scale agrifood systems dropped by a concerning 44% in 2019-2020 compared with the previous two years.”
He added that development finance institutions and climate funds should “consistently and progressively increase levels of climate finance for small-scale agrifood systems to enable the long-term planning of resources.”
The report said grassroots organizations are important for farmers to access climate finance. However, these organizations face numerous challenges, such as complex and time-consuming application processes requiring up to 22 documents and criminal background checks on all organization employees.
“Unclogging GEF and GCF pipes to ensure that at least some finance reaches the farmers who produce our food is critical,” Duncan Macqueen, director of forests at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said in the release.
To address the problems, the report recommends setting targets for funds that must directly reach family farmers, ensuring that farmers are included in decision-making, and streamlining the application processes, making them more transparent and efficient.
Banner image of farmers in India by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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