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This week, the Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations stated that the number of people who suffer chronic hunger is 925 million.

The FAO confirmed that a child dies of hunger every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems. The FAO director-general, Jacques Diouf, said continuing high global hunger means it is likely that the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved.

There are severe structural issues which threaten to increase the number of people suffering from undernourishment suggested the FAO. Among the key issues, the Fairtrade Foundation believes, is inadequate agriculture funding by African countries AND the donor community.

Earlier this year the FAO stated only nine African governments have met the target of allocating 10% of national budgets to agriculture despite promising to do so seven years ago. Furthermore, the share of overseas aid from rich countries spent on agriculture has fallen from 19% in 1989 to about 5% today.

One important answer to the global food crisis, and today’s figures confirm we are indeed in a food crisis now, is to ensure overseas development aid effectively targets smallholder agriculture. This is a sustainable way to boost production. Furthermore smallholders are often net buyers of food. So boosting their production will increase their ability to buy food.

Today one billion people rely on smallholder farming for their living. As powerful countries gear up to address the food crisis, smallholders should not be left out of the equation. Increased funding must be targeted to boost yields and access to markets which in turn catalyses economic opportunities for many of the world’s poorest people.