More than 350 million family farmers have expressed concern about global food security

Organizations representing over 350 million family farmers and producers sent an open letter to world leaders on Monday, warning that global food security is under threat unless governments increase adaptation funding for small-scale production and encourage a shift to more diverse, low-input agribusiness.

Food insecurity is a worldwide issue that manifests differently in various regions of the world. National organisations ranging from Jordan to the United Kingdom and India have also signed. The letter warns that "global food system is ill-equipped to deal with the impacts of climate change, even if we limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius" and that "building a food system that can feed the world on a hot planet" must be a priority for COP27.

The signatories

The World Rural Forum, which represents 35 million family farmers across five continents, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, which represents 200 million small-scale producers on the continent, the Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Development, which has 13 million members, and Coordinadora de Mujeres Lideres Territoriales de Mesoamerica in Latin America have all signed the letter.

A global collective force of financially viable models is required to address the pressing crisis

Small-scale producers are critical to global food security because they produce up to 80% of the food consumed in Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries. Despite this, they only accounted for 1.7% of climate finance flows in 2018 - a mere $10 billion in comparison to the estimated $240 billion needed to assist them in climate change adaptation.

Progress in finance is critical to COP27 success. At the Glasgow climate summit in 2021, advanced economical countries consented to double overall adaptation funding to $40 billion per year by 2025, which is still only a fraction of what is needed.

The signatories urge governments to collaborate with them in order to develop a stronger, stable, and equitable food system. The United Nations Climate Summit (COP27) kicked off in Egypt with 90 heads of state meetings to discuss food security and climate finance.