Often overlooked, marginal farmers could help transform the fight against hunger, says John Madeley, author of a new report.

They number among the poorest of the world's poor, producing food on small plots of land, mainly for their families. Marginal farmers are considered marginal to the national economy – if they do not sell the food they produce, it will not figure in their national income statistics. They may have no alternative employment options, are often not organised, and have no voice.

In bad years, when their food runs out, they may have to sell vital assets such as animals. In better years, when they have food to sell, they are disadvantaged in the market place, trading in small volumes with produce of varying quality. So they are marginal to markets. Many are geographically isolated from markets.

Their marginalisation is compounded because policy makers, even aid agencies, often ignore them. And yet they are anything but marginal in number. Around 400 million people, half the world's hungry, live on small farms. And they cannot be marginal to attempts to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.

In a new report, Unheard Voices: the case for supporting marginal farmers, the non-governmental organisation Concern Worldwide, urges "a new, comprehensive approach… to combat poverty and hunger, which includes subsistence agriculture".

It argues that, "marginal farmers are accorded low priority by governments of both developed and developing countries". National agricultural policies often fail to recognise them, while donors fail to reach them and in some cases exclude them. Donor aid to agriculture has fallen dramatically over the last 25 years. For the world's marginal farmers, this has meant less support for the technologies and practices they need to increase their food output.

Yet research shows that small farms are generally more efficient than large farms. According to a recent International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) paper, "Agricultural growth has proven to be powerfully pro-poor when based on small farms and the products they grow, especially food staples". It points to small farms' significant potential for reducing poverty and inequity.

With sensitive assistance, marginal farmers have the potential to produce more and overcome poverty. Women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India, for example, have increased crop production by over 300% using various low cost methods. In a study of sustainable farming, covering projects involving 12.6 million farmers in 57 countries, researchers from Essex University found that yield increases are greater at lower yields, indicating greater benefits for poorer farmers. Maize, millet and sorghum, potatoes and other legumes all showed yield increases of around 100%.

"With the right assistance many of the challenges facing small farmers can be overcome," Mahlati Moyo, Chairperson of the Mongu District Farmers' Association in Zambia, said at the report's launch; "Good agricultural policies that are appropriate to specific geographical areas must be put in place, and the people responsible for developing those policies must listen to the voices of the poorest farmers to ensure that their circumstances are taken in to account."

To address hunger, there is an urgent need to increase food production on the farms where hungry people live. The report recommends that national governments recognise the centrality of subsistence agriculture to the livelihoods of the poorest, and the vital role that marginal farmers play in food production. It suggests they address the varying needs of marginal farmers, allocate sufficient resources to agriculture within national poverty reduction strategies, ensuring that marginal farmers are included.

Unheard Voices argues that the agriculture policy of DFID ensures that marginal farmers for whom agriculture is a way of life or their only option receive increased support in order to become food secure and more resilient to livelihood shocks. And DFID should continue to help economically active poor farmers move from subsistence agriculture to semicommercial agriculture through increased yields, alternative crops and improved access to markets.

John Madeley is the lead author of Unheard Voices: the case for supporting marginal farmers.