At the WTO Trade and Environment Week, WFO Secretary General Dr Andrea Porro argued that farmers cannot keep producing without stable, predictable conditions, and that those conditions are now under strain.

For farmers, sustainability and resilience are preconditions for producing food. That was the case the Secretary General of the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO), Dr Andrea Porro, made on 2 June 2026 at the session “Emerging Agricultural Trade (EAT) Issues: An Environmental Sustainability Perspective“.

The session, part of the seventh edition of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade and Environment Week in Geneva (1–5 June 2026), opened a new workshop series on emerging agricultural trade issues, co-organised by the MC14 co-sponsors of the dedicated Dialogue. As a kick-off, it focused on one point in particular: there is no one-size-fits-all approach to agriculture, given the wide variation in production systems and conditions across the WTO membership.

Rising uncertainty over fertiliser and energy, higher input and logistics costs, and growing volatility are shaping what farmers plant, how much they invest, and what they will harvest.

The Middle East crisis has shown how fragile those preconditions can be, a concern WFO first set out in its April statement. Since tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, a key corridor for energy and fertiliser trade, have intensified, input availability is falling, and costs are rising at a critical point in the agricultural cycle. Fertiliser costs have risen sharply since the beginning of the crisis, while crop prices have remained largely stable, squeezing farm margins to historically poor levels. This is not a passing inconvenience, Dr Porro stressed, but a structural vulnerability that predates the crisis and has been sharply worsened by it.

Screenshot from the 2026 WTO Trade and Environment Week Session “Emerging Agricultural Trade (EAT) Issues: An environmental sustainability perspective, organized by the co-sponsors of WT/MIN(26)/40”

The same shock lands differently on the ground. WFO members  on all continents, from Argentina to Kenya, from Zimbabwe  to Japan are documenting the squeeze through different channels, from freight and harvest costs to fertiliser shortages at peak planting, with one shared result: tighter margins, less input use, and harder choices for the seasons ahead. Lower input use now means less production later and more volatile food prices, which is why, Dr Porro said, the window to act is now, before the coming cycles are decided.

“Farmers must be recognised not as passive victims of global shocks but as central actors in responding to them,” said Dr Porro. “Global food security depends on their ability to produce under stable and predictable conditions.”

Dr Porro set out what farmers need: affordable and predictable access to fertilisers and energy, greater transparency on input prices, and responses developed with farmers and their organisations. Financial support, when used, should reach farmers while production decisions are still open. Preserving open, predictable and rules-based trade flows is fundamental, because fertiliser, energy and food markets depend on it.

Beyond the current crisis, Dr Porro pointed to longer-term resilience: stronger domestic and regional production, sustainable fertiliser solutions, and greater integration of renewable energy in agriculture. Ultimately, resilient food systems depend on economically viable farms; protecting farm profitability and the conditions for investment enable productivity, resilience, and sustainability.

With this intervention, WFO carried the position it set out in April into the multilateral trade arena, where decisions on trade directly affect farmers worldwide.

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Cover photo: ©WTO