RIGHT now, 870 million people in the world are hungry. In Pakistan alone, an estimated 17 million people are food-insecure.

The United Nations reports that many countries are on track to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving their 1990 rates of hunger by 2015. But before the world gives itself a collective pat on the back, it’s important to realise nearly one in eight people are still hungry.

National and international leaders, farmers groups, and research organisations need to find solutions that really nourish the world, while improving farmer incomes, empowering youth and women, and protecting the environment. And with 2014 having been declared the International Year of Family Farming by the United Nations, the time to act is now.

And these solutions won’t be found in silver bullet technologies or billion-dollar government food aid programmes. Supporting the world’s small family farmers with the resources they need to grow food for themselves, their communities, and the world is the way forward.

Around 3.8 million farms in Pakistan are considered small family farms, with landholdings measuring less than two hectares. And although these farms are small in size, the potential that they have to improve yields and environmental sustainability of agricultural production is big.

Industrial agriculture practices tend to be extremely resource-intensive and can damage the environment — 70 per cent of global water use goes to farming, and soil is being eroded between 10 and 40 times faster than it’s being replenished.

Smallholder farmers typically have intimate knowledge of their landscapes and local climates, and with adequate support and resources could help to transform the food system using more sustainable methods that can also boost productivity. They are also more likely to use traditional knowledge and techniques to rely less on scarce natural resources, and produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than industrial farms.

For example, the Neelum-Jhelum Valleys Community Development Project set objectives to promote environmental conservation and community participation in resource development in response to deforestation, erosion, and overgrazing. Through this project, nearly 12,000 hectares were planted, improving crop yields and doubling the average household income of the project’s participants.

Rural areas, where the vast majority of family farmers live, suffer from high rates of poverty. According to the World Bank, 27 per cent of the rural population of Pakistan lived under the national rural poverty line.

Supporting the success of family farms—and increasing the incomes of family farmers—will significantly raise the overall standard of living. Research from Oxfam shows that investing in small farmers also creates a ‘multiplier’ effect that extends beyond the farming sector — farmers spend a big share of their income in other sectors, including construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing.

And there are already initiatives underway that are supporting small Pakistani farmers. The International Fund of Agricultural Development operation, Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project, is working to benefit an estimated 8.6 million rural residents of several districts. The project assists informal labourers without landholdings, smallholder farmers, and woman-headed households in increasing their incomes by supporting agricultural productivity and production, and by increasing the overall employment potential of this targeted population. With 60 per cent of the country’s export earnings and 43 per cent of the labour force employed in agriculture, initiatives focused on family farming contribute to raising rural incomes overall.

Small family farms carry the potential to nourish the hungry, stimulate economies, and protect the environment. With these sorts of impressive returns, donors, non-profit organisations, and governments must focus their attention more on family farmers and invest in programmes and infrastructure that empower them. When nourishing the world is what’s at stake, there’s no time to wait. Only decisive action can ensure that the International Year of Family Farming will actually make a difference for family farmers.

Danielle Nierenberg is co-founder of Food Tank: The Food Think Tank and Emily Salshutz is a research intern at the organisation.