Caritas Internationalis Advocates for “small-scale agriculture” ahead of World Food Day

He adds, “It is a paradox that, in our opulent globalized world, four out of ten people cannot afford healthy food. The current severe food crisis cannot be solely addressed by industrial agriculture.”

“We need to move away from a focus on efficiency and profit maximization in the food system and instead focus on sustaining local food systems, which through diversified seeds, have the capacity to improve food and nutrition security,” John says.

The CI Secretary General continues, “If we do not take measures now, an increasing percentage of the world’s population is destined to suffer from hunger.”

“Food injustice needs to be immediately addressed at the highest level. Food production must be devoid of political and vested interest and seen as a common good for humanity,” John further says. 

In the October 14 report, CI officials say, “Alongside hunger hotspots like Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa regions are among the most affected, with 21 million of people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia suffering high levels of acute food insecurity and malnutrition.”

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“This is also the result of the dependence on imported foods and chemical input industrial agriculture and of the limited involvement of farmers in the food supply chain,” they add.

CI officials note that “all over the world, Caritas organizations implement programmes to build community resilience, adopt locally driven innovation based on indigenous knowledge and support small-scale farmers.”

“In India and Niger for example, local communities working with Caritas are maximizing the use of locally available resources, such as agricultural fertilizers and botanical pesticides, in order to improve soil nutrients and contribute to climate change mitigation,” they say. 

Officials of the global aid and development agency of the Catholic named after the Latin word for love and compassion add, “Such programmes include farming techniques and systems based on agroecology, which integrates the needs of agricultural production with the principle of environmental preservation.”

They further call on the international community and decision makers “to ensure greater efforts to support new forms of small-scale agriculture, create social food cooperatives, and enable small-scale farmers to cultivate their land.”

“This means a change in agricultural development projects, with a focus on watershed management and access to sustainable agricultural materials,” officials of the entity that shares the Catholic Church mission to serve the poor and to promote charity and justice across the globe add.

They further say, “States and the global community should also avoid focusing on achieving short-term food security and instead focus on long-term home-grown innovations that build sustainable local food systems rooted in local realities, inclusive and resilient to shocks around the world.”

Jude Atemanke is a Cameroonian journalist with a passion for Catholic Church communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Buea in Cameroon. Currently, Jude serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.