A new global assessment by the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) finds that farmers’ organisations are informed about national climate commitments but rarely involved in shaping them. WFO urges Parties to close that gap as they prepare for the UN climate talks in Bonn this June (SB64) and COP31 in Antalya in November.

Rome, 28 May 2026 — As governments move from setting climate targets to delivering them, a new report from the World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) finds that farmers, who are expected to carry much of that agenda on the ground, remain largely absent from the processes where these plans are designed.

Farmers’ Organisations in the NDC Process: A Global Assessment examines how farmers’ organisations are engaged in the design, revision and implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the national climate plans at the heart of the Paris Agreement. Coordinated by the WFO International Secretariat, the study draws on responses from fourteen WFO member organisations in developed and developing countries, collected between June 2025 and January 2026.

The central finding is a persistent structural gap. Awareness of NDCs among farmers’ organisations is growing, but their structured, meaningful participation in NDC design remains limited, inconsistent, and confined to late-stage consultations that generate little substantive input. In several countries, farmers are informed but not actively involved in drafting or monitoring climate commitments, and consultations are often ad hoc, late in the process, or purely formal.

This gap matters well beyond process. Agriculture is among the sectors most exposed to climate risk and most essential to delivering solutions, and farmers must be recognised as essential partners in climate governance. When climate commitments are designed without farmer input, the report warns, they often fail to reflect local realities, leading to low uptake, resistance, or unintended trade-offs for food security, livelihoods and rural development. The credibility of national commitments, and their implementation on the ground, suffers as a result.

The report also shows what works. Where farmers’ organisations are meaningfully engaged, climate policies are more credible, more coherent, and better aligned with national development priorities. In Norway, Norges Bondelag has secured structured collaboration through sectoral climate agreements integrated into national policy. In Australia, the National Farmers’ Federation helped shape the Agriculture and Land Sector Plan feeding into the country’s NDC, with advocacy that produced concrete, producer-led emission-reduction initiatives. In Kenya, the Kenya National Farmers’ Federation (KENAFF) developed a Climate Business and Green Growth Strategy aligned with Kenya’s NDC, working with national and county authorities to ensure farmers’ priorities are reflected in implementation.

To close the gap, the report sets out five recommendations:

1. Institutionalise inclusive participation through formal, recurring processes that involve farmers’ organisations in the design, revision and implementation of NDCs.
2. Strengthen the institutional role of farmers’ organisations by formally including them in implementation, monitoring and evaluation committees.
3. Provide targeted support for farmers, including subsidies for climate-smart practices, access to green finance, and technical assistance.
4. Invest in capacity building and organisational strength, particularly in low-resource systems.
5. Ensure policy coherence and cross-sectoral coordination across ministries and between local, national and international levels.

The timing is deliberate. The discussions expected at the the 64th sessions of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies (SB64), in Bonn, Germany, from 8 to 18 June 2026, and the political direction to be set at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, from 9 to 20 November 2026, represent, in WFO’s view, a strategic opportunity to put inclusive governance at the centre of the next phase of Paris Agreement implementation.

“Climate ambition will only yield tangible results if farmers are fully involved in shaping the policies they are expected to implement, and properly empowered to do so,” said Andrea Porro, Secretary General of the World Farmers’ Organisation. “This report shows that where farmers are meaningfully engaged, climate policies become more credible and more effective. As Parties prepare for SB64 and COP31, we are asking governments to move farmers from the margins of the NDC process to the table where these plans are shaped, and to back that participation with the financial tools that make implementation possible.”

WFO is encouraging policymakers, government negotiators and all stakeholders engaged in the climate agenda to use the report’s findings as a reference point on the state of farmer engagement in national climate policy.

Read the full report HERE

About the World Farmers’ Organisation

The World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO) member-driven organisation representing national farmers’ organisations and agricultural cooperatives globally. It gives voice to world farmers in key global policy processes and multilateral fora to ensure decisions on agriculture and food systems integrate farmers’ knowledge and on-the-ground experience.

Media contact: Valeria Di Marzo, valeria.dimarzo@wfo-oma.org

Cover photo: ©WFO