Global Food Report 2026

Agroecology Starts with Women Farmers

In the 16 Alliance Sufosec projects with repeated measurements, food insecurity fell on average from 61% to 41%.

The report’s key message

“Where smallholder households have practised agroecology for years, hunger is on the decline.”

Agroecology aligns farming with local natural cycles: diversity in the fields instead of a few crops, healthy soils instead of purchased inputs, farmers’ knowledge and cooperation instead of dependence on external suppliers.

Severe hunger halved

Severe food insecurity in the 16 projects with repeated measurements

Every year since 2021, six leading Swiss organisations working against hunger have used instruments of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to measure how the food situation of households in their projects is developing. In 2025, the survey covered 12,366 households in 16 countries.

22 → 11%

Severe food insecurity on average, 16 projects with repeated measurements

61 → 41%

Food insecurity on average, same projects

41 vs 55

Of 100 households that grow a diverse range of crops and organise themselves into groups, 41 are affected by food insecurity; of 100 that do neither, 55 (2025 survey)

69%

of the women surveyed meet the minimum dietary diversity standard (MDD-W), median across 40 project regions, measured for the first time in 2025

The difference is greatest between households that grow a diverse range of crops and organise in groups and those that do neither.

The data come from the projects themselves

Surveys are carried out in selected project regions, where the partner organisations are able to conduct the study every year: in 2025 in 39 project regions in 16 countries. Each dot on the map is a site of the household survey.

Click on a dot or a country for details. The map can be zoomed and panned.

Household survey project sites 2021–2025. The countries are coloured by category: country with repeated measurements and other survey country.

Where a project has been measured repeatedly, its development can be tracked over several years, even though a new sample is drawn each year. In total, the organisations work with around 300 local partners in 28 countries of the Global South.

Hunger is falling in 13 of 16 projects

In one project each in Chad, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire, food insecurity rose slightly.

The chart compares each of the 16 projects with its own baseline.

Figure 1, Global Food Report 2026. Change in moderate and severe food insecurity, from the first measurement to 2025, in percentage points. Source: Alliance Sufosec household survey.

The bars show by how many percentage points the proportion of households with moderate or severe food insecurity changed between the first measurement and 2025. Values below zero indicate a decline. The range extends from minus 55 percentage points in Fabidji, Niger to slight increases in three projects. In Lindi and Mtwara in Tanzania, the proportion fell from 48% to 16%, while the national FAO reference value remained virtually unchanged over the same period. The household survey is repeated every year and is not a randomised trial: it shows correlations, not causes.

2026 is the year of women farmers

Images from the projects

The UN has declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer. The report, too, places women farmers at the centre.

Dancing and singing at a meeting of a women’s group in Mumias, Kenya, supported by Vivamos together with CJPD.

Photo: Ricus Jacometti

Delivery at the Anolei cooperative in Isiolo, where the camel milk is filtered and cooled.

Photo: Christian Bobst

Stellamaris Mulaeh, agroecology expert and head of Act for Change, as keynote speaker at the third national agroecology symposium in Kenya, July 2026.

Photo: PELUM Kenya

Stellamaris Mulaeh with freshly harvested cabbage on her farm, with banana and papaya plants growing behind her.

Photo: Eyeris Communications

Compost for a new bed: three women farmers in Madagascar, where Aqua Alimenta supports agroecological farming.

Photo: Tony Vonison / Aqua Alimenta

A woman farmer spreads compost on a freshly prepared bed in Côte d’Ivoire, one of Aqua Alimenta’s project countries.

Photo: Salif Touré / Aqua Alimenta

In 2025, the household survey collected data on women’s diets for the first time. In portraits, the women farmers speak for themselves. Four of the six images come from Kenya, the report’s focus country, the other two from Madagascar and Côte d’Ivoire.

“Participating in these projects has completely changed my life”

Four voices from the printed report

“We have learned to make natural plant protection products and bokashi compost, a fermented fertiliser made from organic material. The families in our community have chosen me to represent them in the training sessions. I then pass on to them what I learn there.”

Edelmira Vásquez, smallholder farmer and agroecological adviser, Honduras · Photo: Fabienne Jacomet

“My youngest daughter suffered from anaemia. Through the project, I learned that plants like rosella hibiscus can help treat it. Since I’ve had my own vegetable garden, I’ve also had more money left over because I hardly have to buy anything at the market anymore.”

Carolyne Wamalwa, smallholder farmer, Kenya · Photo: Giulia Balmer / Vivamos

“We used to grow vegetables, too, but it’s only since I started a kitchen garden that we’ve been harvesting at least five different varieties – more than we need. We sell the surplus at the market. Participating in these projects has completely changed my life.”

Sangita Baspane, smallholder farmer, Nepal · Photo: Jibiko

“At half past five, I get up and go to the school garden. Watching a plant grow from seed to a vegetable ready for harvest gives me a real sense of responsibility. Many people think of farming as work for the uneducated. I still want to become a woman farmer, even though I know the path won’t be easy.”

Ally Majidu Makundi, final-year secondary school student, Tanzania · Photo: Kiki & Miles Productions

Six organisations, one shared measurement

The Alliance Sufosec brings together six Swiss organisations that have been measuring their impact jointly since 2021: Fastenaktion, SWISSAID, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse, Vivamos, Aqua Alimenta and Skat Foundation.