Check out this post on World Food Day from our partner organization World Food Programme. This post—exploring how the WFP is working to invest in local agriculture—is part of our Food Security in Focus series. Stay tuned to the ONE Blog for more entries in coming days.

-Kara Arsenault

Most of the world’s half-billion smallholder farmers struggle to make food spring from the earth. Hit hardest by the rising tide of natural disasters—and often lacking access to the credit, fertilizers and improved seeds that would boost their resilience— they continually hover a half-step away from ruin.

And yet, whole continents depend on their labors. In sub-Saharan Africa, where some 80 million smallholder farmers (mostly women) supply 80 percent of the food, they are the future.

In 2008, the World Food Programme (WFP) bought $1.1 billion worth of food in 73 developing countries. That same year, we launched a 21-country pilot initiative called Purchase for Progress (P4P), which seeks to leverage our huge purchasing power to the advantage of the smalltime farmers in the poorest countries where we work.

The program, which receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Howard G. Buffett Foundations, aims to empower tens of thousands of small-scale farmers to move beyond subsistence— by connecting them to markets. The food WFP buys from the farmers will feed the hungry in the same country. A guaranteed buyer also gives farmers the confidence—and the cash—to invest in their own enterprises.

This formula has already proved a “win-win” for small farmers from Asia to Latin America.

In Nicaragua, we heard from 76-year-old farmer Dionisio Blandon, who can finally afford quality seeds and fertilizers for his 1.4 hectare plot of maize because his P4P-supported cooperative has extended credit—to be repaid after the harvest. He expects his income to increase by 40 percent.

Anne Rono, a mother of seven from Kenya, tells us she’s usually at the mercy of traders who take advantage of small farmers by offering them below-market price for their maize. But this year—thanks to P4P—she’s getting a reliable buyer and a fair price, putting more cash into her hands so she can purchase fertilizer for her fields—and school books and clothing for her kids. In her words: “P4P can change my life.”

Find out more about Purchase for Progress here.

-Jennifer Parmelee, World Food Programme