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n line with the UN'€™s decision to make 2014 the International Year of Family Farming, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called on the Indonesian government to take better care of family farms to help achieve food sovereignty and win the fight against hunger.

Speaking on behalf of FAO director general José Graziano da Silva, interim Indonesia representative Antonio Caravaggi said that farmers should be able to take advantage of recent scientific and technological advances to increase production and boost income.

Caravaggi said that a recent agricultural census had shown that average income in the agricultural sector among households dependent on plantations, crops, livestock and poultry, horticulture, fisheries or agroforestry was about Rp 26.1 million (US$2,500) per year.

He said that the government should support family farms by providing farmers with training and access to more sustainable technologies.

'€œI think they should be supported and trained in new and appropriate technologies to improve the quality of their production,'€ Caravaggi said on the sidelines of the World Food Day commemoration event in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Thursday.

He said that innovation was essential in taking advantage of new technologies to develop the agriculture sector and garnering support from all stakeholders.

'€œFamily farmers need to innovate in the systems they use. [Meanwhile,] governments need to innovate in the specific policies they implement to support family farmers, [whereas] producers and organizations need to innovate to respond better to the needs of family farming,'€ he said.

'€œIn all its forms, innovation needs to be inclusive, involving family farmers in the generation, sharing and use of knowledge so that they have ownership of the process.'€

Caravaggi added that research efforts should transition from a research-driven process based predominantly on technology-transfer to an approach that enabled and rewarded innovation by farmers themselves.

He said that FAO data presented in its '€œAnnual State of Food and Agriculture Report'€ suggested that around 500 million of the world'€™s 570 million farms were run by families, supplying more than 80 percent of the world'€™s food in terms of value. '€œThey are the main caretakers of our natural resources,'€ he said.

'€œWe believe that, under the strong commitment and leadership of Jokowi, [achieving] food sovereignty will be in alignment with the FAO'€™s global strategic objective in fighting hunger,'€ he said, referring to President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo.

He also said he appreciated the commitment made by the government to prioritize food and nutrition security through the passage of Food Law No. 18/2012.

Meanwhile, South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo said that the World Food Day commemoration in Makassar was intended to engage the public and explain the importance of farming.

'€œWe want to invite the public to see how promising agriculture is in forging the future of the country,'€ he said.

The 34th World Food Day commemoration event was officially opened by Governor Syahrul in Maccini Sombala at Indonesia Park in Makassar and was attended by 1,000 people including farmers, agricultural entrepreneurs, ambassadors and representatives from government agencies.