UPSC Prelims 2024 Q26: 100 Million Farmers Platform — Explained

Which one of the following is the correct description of "100 Million Farmers"?

  1. It is a platform for accelerating the transition towards food and water systems that are net-zero (carbon), nature-positive and that aims to increase farmer resilience.
  2. It is an international alliance and a network of individuals and farming organisations interested in supporting and strengthening the development of the organic animal husbandry.
  3. It is a digital platform fully integrated with service providers and built on blockchain that lets buyers, sellers and third parties trade fertilizers quickly and securely.
  4. It is a platform with the mission of encouraging the farmers to form Farmer Product Organisations or Agribusiness Consortiums, thus facilitating the access to global open markets to sell their products.

Answer: (a) It is a platform for accelerating the transition towards food and water systems that are net-zero (carbon), nature-positive and that aims to increase farmer resilience.

Statement-wise explanation

  • a: correct — 100 Million Farmers is a World Economic Forum (WEF) multistakeholder platform. Its aim is to move food systems to net-zero and nature-positive by 2030 while making farmers more resilient. It plans to reach 100 million farmers and 1 billion consumers by 2030. It works through three levers: finance, data and innovation, and policy change.
  • b: incorrect — This is a near-word-for-word description of the IFOAM Animal Husbandry Alliance (IAHA). IAHA is an informal network of individuals and organisations that supports organic animal husbandry. The IFOAM World Board approved it in November 2012. It has nothing to do with the WEF or with net-zero food systems.
  • c: incorrect — This describes a blockchain marketplace for trading fertilizers, such as Fertilizer Exchange, which was set to launch in 2021 with built-in shipping, insurance and inspection services. 100 Million Farmers is not a trading platform. It is a coalition that brings together companies, governments, NGOs and farmer organisations to change how food is produced.
  • d: incorrect — Helping farmers form producer organisations and reach markets is the job of bodies such as India's Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC). 100 Million Farmers does not aim to organise farmers into FPOs for export markets. Its goal is to shift farming towards climate and nature outcomes.

How to eliminate

This question mostly tests whether you know the fact. You need to remember that 100 Million Farmers is a WEF platform for net-zero, nature-positive food systems by 2030 that builds farmer resilience. Some clues still help. The name sounds like a mass-scale global campaign, not a niche network for one sector (organic livestock), one product (fertilizer trading) or one technology (blockchain). Statements that name very narrow mechanisms like these usually describe some other, real body. UPSC took them from IFOAM's animal husbandry alliance and a fertilizer exchange. Also, from 2021 onwards 'net-zero' and 'nature-positive' were the WEF's standard terms for food-system initiatives. If you link the name to Davos, the climate-language statement is the natural pick. Do not confuse it with the Indian target of 'ICAR technologies for 100 million farmers'. That is a domestic reach goal, not this platform.

Know more

100 Million Farmers (100MF) is a World Economic Forum platform, run with Deloitte. It works on one idea: food systems cannot reach climate goals unless farmers themselves are given incentives and support to change.

  • Goal: move to net-zero, nature-positive food systems by 2030, while raising farmer resilience.
  • Scale: reach 100 million farmers and 1 billion consumers by 2030. The WEF describes this as about one in five farmers worldwide, a tipping point for the sector.
  • Levers: new finance models, data and innovation, and policy change.
  • Delivery: regional and national 'lighthouse' coalitions, such as the European Carbon+ Coalition, built around local conditions.
  • Report: 100 Million Farmers: Breakthrough Models for Financing a Sustainability Transition, released at Davos in January 2024.

Key terms

  • Net-zero: greenhouse gases released are balanced by gases removed.
  • Nature-positive: halting and reversing nature loss, so biodiversity and soils end up better than the baseline.
  • Farmer resilience: farmers' ability to cope with climate, price and yield shocks.

Look-alikes UPSC used as distractors

Description in the statements What it actually matches
Network supporting organic animal husbandry IFOAM Animal Husbandry Alliance (IAHA), approved 2012
Blockchain platform for fertilizer trade Fertilizer Exchange (digital fertilizer marketplace)
Helping farmers form FPOs and reach markets FPO-promotion bodies such as SFAC (India)
Net-zero, nature-positive food systems, farmer resilience 100 Million Farmers (WEF)

UPSC often asks what a named global initiative is, especially WEF, UNEP or FAO platforms that appear around Davos or COP meetings. Learn each one's host body, target year and headline goal.

In the news

The WEF released its '100 Million Farmers: Breakthrough Models for Financing a Sustainability Transition' report at the Davos Annual Meeting in January 2024. That was five months before Prelims 2024, which put the platform in the news.

NCERT Concepts to Revise

  • Net zero: One description in the question turns on 'net-zero (carbon)' food systems. Knowing that net zero means emissions balanced by removals helps you judge it.

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