Whilst family farming provides 80 per cent of the world’s food, the average age of farmers is increasing nearly everywhere. Providing young rural people with the political and socio-economic conditions to enable them to pursue farming, and thus guarantee the next generation of farmers, is a core issue in addressing some of the major challenges of the 21st century: food security, poverty alleviation and climate change, as well as sustaining rural livelihoods.
The young farmers who participated in the International Summit of Young Farmers (SIJA) meeting held in Kigali (Rwanda) back in 2022, agreed to take action by proposing the declaration of an International Young Farmers’ Day to raise the awareness of the challenges faced by rural youth and to recognise young people as key actors in the sustainable transformation of agri-food systems around the world.
Such an initiative requires massive support from family farming organisations, other civil society organisations, agricultural research centres and other institutions involved in rural development, food security and food sovereignty.
We invite you to join the voices of these young people by signing the letter of support for the declaration of the International Day of Young Farmers. You just need to print the letter, fill it in, sign it on behalf of your organisation and scan it before sending it to the following email address: wrfsecretary@ruralforum.org.
