The street outside the FAO was transformed into a farmers market today. It is not the usual site for a market, but was set up as a simple message to those attending the sessions on World Food Security. The message has two parts: the first is that farmers must be at the center of discussions about food security; the second is that food should first and foremost be produced for local markets and only then focus on international exports.

As I walked through the stalls of the market I felt like I might be back in Winnipeg. I found myself looking for local specialties and walked out with some incredible parmesan cheese and a bottle of olive oil. Both were purchased directly from the farmer. Since starting work on Food Justice at the Foodgrains Bank three years, I have found that connecting to those who grow my food is a really good way of understanding my own place in the increasingly complex global food system. I must admit that I am too often disoriented by the choice between the average 40 thousand items found in our supermarkets, and the policy conversations like those that are happening in Rome this week – it is so complex… I find that simply connecting to a farmer at the local market is a way of grounding the other, more disorienting, experiences that I have with food.

I tell you all this because I spent the day working with a group of NGOs and farmers organizations who are trying to get “more” international support for small-scale farmers and rural livelihoods in the South. Aid for agriculture, in the context of the total amounts of Official Development Assistance (ODA), was around 20% until the 1980s. Currently, it is somewhere less than 10%. With upwards of 70% of the population in developing countries living in rural areas, the importance of a focus on farmers and agriculture – those who grow food - cannot be overstated. Funding for projects that help to enhance their soils, provide spaces for them to gather and learn from one another, create local markets, and sustainably manage their land are crucial. There is an emerging sense that increasing the amount of aid for agriculture is now being talked about by many organizations at the national and international level, so perhaps the first goal of the More and Better campaign is at hand. We won’t be celebrating just yet.

Most participants in today’s session said that regardless of the amount of aid that is coming, there is an urgent need to focus on what “better” aid for agriculture looks like. What kind of agriculture are we talking about? The farmers that are gathered here in Rome are clear that they want to make this choice. As projects are proposed to development organizations like the Foodgrains Bank, how ought we to assess the kinds of agricultural work we undertake with partners in the South? To help organizations answer all of these questions, participants of the More and Better campaign agreed to the following list of principles for “better” agriculture.

Better aid for agriculture should:

1. Support the programs and policies developed by the recipient communities and countries
2. Work with local communities and social organizations
3. Build on local culture and knowledge
4. Promote diversity
5. Embody a culture of participation
6. Recognize that gender is a central issue
7. Support social, economic and ecological sustainability

If it surprises you that these principles do not form the basis for all agricultural development projects around the world, I invite you to take a look at a paper where I have been exploring the questions of aid for agriculture in the context of soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa.