Investing in smallholder family farmers could help transform rural areas and provide farmers with a better living, said Kanayo Nwanze, President of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), on Wednesday at the 37th session of its Governing Council.

"Around 76 percent of the world's poorest people live in rural areas of developing countries," said Nwanze, "It is ironic that in many parts of the world the very poor people who feed the world are the ones struggling most to survive."

He discussed providing solutions such as investing in smallholder farmers to "transform" rural areas "so the people, especially youth, can make a decent living and reduce (the) rural and urban gap."

Smallholder family farmers are people who derive a significant portion of their income from farming and involve members of the family in managing the farm, relying predominantly on family labor, according to IFAD's definition.

There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in the world, producing four fifths of the developing world's food, according to IFAD's statistics.

"The world economy is still vulnerable and in difficult times the number of poor people increases. Strong action is needed." said Italian Economy and Finance Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni at the meeting. "Suffering and dying from hunger in the 21st century is unacceptable," he added.

Headquartered in Rome, IFAD has invested over 15 billion U.S. dollars in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries through projects since it was established in 1977, empowering more than 410 million people to break out of poverty.