When there is a major disaster leading to huge loss, who do farmers run to for help? In most developing countries, there is no safety net for farmers to bounce back quickly and this is a major challenge in our food system. There is hardly policies that protect farmers or hardly known policies implemented when farmers experience huge losses which affect him or her for many years; sadly, some do not recover for life living in debt, few did commit suicide as a result of the huge debt while others recovered but afraid to take such risk again. Many times, the reason farmers do not want to take new risks is because of the fear of past failures and perception that they are on their own when risk crystallizes.

It is important that in transition farmers need support from farming to agribusiness. They have experienced many years of self-reliance and have developed a belief that it would take years to change. So, when farmers do not accept new technologies that would increase their yield, there is a belief already established in them that rejects such technologies. So, our focus should be re-enforcing a new belief through genuine support offered to them and reducing their risks throughout the adoption process.

Actively supporting farmers through the transition process is the most honorable thing to do to improve our food system. We need more farmers who can take bigger risks and get better output for us to achieve good security. However, we need to provide the needed support for them to develop a new belief that focuses on shared risks and develops a strong system that is built on trust and transparency. This can be achieved through human-centered policies and strong political will to implement them as needed. There is a population to feed, the land to cultivate but we need the farmers with the right mindset to achieve this feat of securing the food for the present and future.