World Food Day is an event established and organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The purpose of the day is to raise public awareness about food security issues and to strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. This year’s theme, “Agricultural cooperatives  – key to feeding the world”, has been chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger. A cooperative is an association of women and men who come together to form a jointly owned, democratically controlled enterprise that satisfies its members’ needs and pursues profit and sustainability.  Interest in cooperatives and rural organizations is also reflected in the decision of the UN General Assembly to designate 2012 “International Year of Cooperatives”.

Nearly one in seven people suffer from undernourishment, yet the world has the means to eliminate hunger and fuel sustainable development. There is broad agreement that smallholders in agriculture, fisheries and forestry will provide much of the extra food needed to feed more than nine billion people by 2050. One of the necessary steps to achieving food security is to support and invest in cooperatives, producer organizations and other rural institutions in order to strengthen the position of these smallholders.
During this year’s World Food Day in Stockholm the role of agricultural cooperatives in achieving food security will be discussed by representatives from the private sector, civil society, governmental agencies, academia and multilateral organizations.

Did you know that…

  • Cooperatives across all sectors provide over 100 million jobs around the world, 20 percent more than multinational enterprises.
  • An estimated 1 billion people worldwide are members of cooperatives.
  • In 2008, the top 300 cooperatives were responsible for an aggregate turnover of US$1.1 trillion. This is the size of the world’s tenth largest economy, Canada.
  • In Kenya, cooperatives have the following market shares: 70 percent of coffee, 76 percent of dairy, and 95 percent of cotton.