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Ecofarming promotion |
Compiled and presented by Peter Komane
When the PELUM Board tasked me to coordinate the Small Farmer Convergence (SFC) process in April 2002, I felt a big load lending on my shoulders. For, even though most of the PELUM member countries had already begun the sensitisation and agenda setting process, we had no resources then, nor did we have the farmer issues and concerns in consolidated form. There was too little time to raise the resources and to make the necessary preparations. But today, as I write this foreword in Johannesburg, I realise that there was indeed enough time for the SFC got to do what we set out to do. I am touched and inspired by the accomplishments we made so soon. The teamwork, energy, synergy and vision made this possible.
The SCF was a special event for small farmers and for PELUM. For the first time, the PELUM Association worked directly with farmer leaders and representatives. Two, the SFC extended the development chain: the regional PELUM, the country working groups, the member organisations and the farmer representatives engaged at once. Three, we had a convergence of over 300 people from 19 countries setting out to build a solidarity movement grounded in the interests and needs of the small farmers, pastoralists, and fisher folk. Four, the SFC delegates had intensive interaction with other producer organisations. At country level, in some PELUM member countries farmer leaders spoke to their governments ahead of the Summit. Six, it was also the first time that some 120 farmers marched – a solidarity march – in the streets of Zambia in the company of Zambia Minister of Agriculture. In the historically notorious Soweto of Johannesburg, the 300 farmers visited children at the Soweto Mountain of Hope (SOMOHO) and addressed them about farmer issues. In summing up, Vandana Shiva said that a partnership between children and farmers was, “a partnership for life”. The SFC was also the first time for PELUM to work closely with other organisations namely NECOFA, APM, INADES, NNFU and IPSA.
We had moments when we erred. Four senior government officials waited for the small farmer caravan. In Zimbabwe, the governor of Midlands province waited for some five hours while in South Africa a chief in Limpopo, a member of Parliament and a member of the provincial committee waited for similar period in vain as we arrived late. The Manenje Community who were to receive us in Limpopo and had prepared for us in many ways suffered the same fate. To all these people, we apologise. At the same time we thank four communities who received us in Zimbabwe and in South Africa.
It was with the idea of enhancing participation and communication that I set out to write this summary report during the busy days in Johannesburg. I wanted the Council of Farmers and the Task Force members who stayed behind (like me) to give their inputs and comments. This worked. I also wanted the leaders of farmer leaders to return home with a more rounded and grounded understanding of what had transpired in the broader process. I also wanted to get this report out to the other farmers in good time to catch the solidarity spirit burning. I knew too that the longer report would come much later as this was rather a complex process to capture.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the sister organisations already mentioned above, Doug Reeler and Desire from CDRA for their facilitation, Monica Kapiriri, former PELUM board member for her facilitation – all at no charge to PELUM. I also wish to thank two Task Force members, Yves Marche and Anne Mutisya for handling much of the facilitation process and holding the large group together. I thank the entire Task Force for giving direction, inspiration and substance to the process. I am grateful to Mary Jo Kakinda our Board chair and her Board members for giving me more space than usual so that I could make decisions timeously. I am most grateful to the Council of Small Farmers, who led with passion and commitment. Finally, I am deeply indebted to all the farmer leaders and representatives who made it to the Convergence and forewent productive work at home, the comfort of their families and of the familiar to fight a noble cause whose results may bear real fruit for future farmers. I am happy that I took the risk to plunge into the event with inadequate resources. It would have been wrong to drop the worthy cause after going so far.
Our gratitude goes to the following partners who provided resources for the process: MISEREOR, Bread for the World, VECO-Zimbabwe, FOS-Belgium, HIVOS, NOVIB and the NGO Committee of the CGIAR.
Mutizwa Mukute,
PELUM Secretary General
PELUM Association, a regional network of NGOs in east and southern Africa, which seeks to help create sustainable communities through building the capacity of development organisations in the region, planned, organised and facilitated the participation of over 250 small farmer leaders and representatives in the World Summit of Sustainable Development. Most of the farmer leaders and representatives came from east and southern African countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Lesotho. Through sister organisations in West Africa and South Africa, about 50 other farmer leaders and representatives attended the Small Farmer Convergence during the WSSD. The sister organisations are INADES Formation in West Africa and APM which is more international and which brought small farmers from Iceland, Poland, France, Chile, Uruguay and Canada. Network for Ecofarmers in Africa played a critical role in sensitising and facilitating farmer leaders in those parts of South Africa where PELUM presence is limited. Altogether, the Convergence attracted farmers from 19 countries.
PELUM conceptualised the idea of engaging small farmers to participate in policy formulation process at country and regional levels because it realises the crucial role that family farming, peasant agriculture, pastoralists, fisherfolk and smallholder farming have played in agricultural and rural development and the part that it played in sustainable development. PELUM recognises that the farmers themselves, who are custodians of a vast part of the earth, have not been adequately involved in the sustainable development discourse, except as consumers of decisions and policies made by others. PELUM is convinced that farmers have something to say, contribute and even dispute for the better of humanity. PELUM values the empowerment of farmers to speak for themselves, about themselves and their own problems and aspirations, to reconstruct their context and shape their future. PELUM is conscious that it is not a farmer organisation and does not represent farmers. However, PELUM sees the importance of facilitating the growth and development of farmer organisations.
It was against this background that PELUM Association members attending the 2001 Biennial General Meeting mandated a Task Force to develop a strategy that would ensure that small farmers could be helped create space during the WSSD and beyond to participate in shaping civil society input.
Agriculture is the backbone of most communities in east and southern Africa. Small farmers in the region are generally resource-poor, use family labour and see farming not just for food production and income generation but also as a way of life. Family farmers have contributed tremendously to the breeding of crops and livestock, increasing agricultural productivity over centuries, yet they are hardly acknowledged and recognised for this. Their way of life is under threat from the corporate sector. Some national and global policies and legal instruments are suppressing the flowering of family farming, with huge companies seeking to take over the whole food chain – controlling inputs, seed and crop diversity, production, processing and marketing. This undermines small farmers. The World Summit for Sustainable Development explicitly recognises the family farmer. As such, PELUM saw the Summit as an opportunity for farmers to articulate their feelings and thoughts about the kind of sustainable development they want. Like the Global People’ Forum (international civil society), PELUM believes that, “A sustainable world is possible”.
Just over 300 delegates attended the Small Farmer Convergence in the following numbers (to the nearest 5): 65 South Africans, 5 Namibians, 50 Lesotho, 40 Kenya, 30 Uganda, 30 Tanzania, 30 Zimbabwe, Zambia 30, APM 20, INADES 10. Out of these, about 270 were small farmers, 15 journalists and the rest were development facilitators. The SFC was one of the largest presence in the civil society.
The SFC helped build small farmer social capital, bringing them together to understand policy-making processes and their implications on a farmer’s life. This happened during the country workshops and during the small farmer convergence itself. Farmers attended plenary sessions where these issues were presented. Those who did not manage to attend got regular feedback in the evening sessions from those who attended. We also invited Vandana Shiva to give us a keynote address, together with people from International Partners in Sustainable Development, Via Campesina and the World Forum for Fisheries. The small farmers from the North also helped articulate some of their problems, which are similar to those of small farmers from the south. The farmers from Namibia also explained the idea behind the SADC small scale farmer network. In addition to building internal alliances among themselves, the farmers met with similar minded organisations and explained who they were and articulated their intentions, resulting in interest to work together at different levels of intensity. The organisations that small farmers met with from outside east and southern Africa are APM which is about Peasant Agriculture and Globalisation; the Via Campesina which is a global movement of farmers; ROPPA, a West African network of producers; IPSA which led the caucus on agriculture among other things, Gaia Foundation which promotes the idea of a People’s Earth Summit, NECOFA which promotes organic agriculture and the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Initiative which FAO is coordinating. In all cases the potential for collaboration in future is high. We also worked closely with INADES who brought farmers from Ivory Cost, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Cameroon. We had visits from HIVOS and MISEREOR, two of our main funding partners. We also made an input in the Sustainable Agriculture Caucus.
The SCF offered PELUM members and CWGs the opportunity to work together in one “project”, thereby building the networking spirit and coherence among them. The effect and significance was similar at regional level. PELUM members in each country worked together on one common project. They raised resources to facilitate the in-country processes. But what was even more interesting was the intensity of communication during the preparatory phase. In addition to meetings carried out at country level: an average of three in each of the 7 PELUM member countries who participated, the use of e-mail increased dramatically. Over 2,000 e-mail messages were exchanged during the 17 weeks of intense communication, just before the Summit, 300 of them originating from the secretary general alone. What was most rewarding was that the response rate was unprecedented in the history of the PELUM Association.
Based on the understanding of major policy developments and farmers’ understanding of their own situations and dreams, small farmer leaders defined issues and strategies around which engagement with governments at local, regional and global levels would be made. The issues are discussed in 2.14 below while the strategies are captured in the attached document on the Commission on Agriculture which we co-hosted with the SAFS caucus. The other part of the strategies is captured in the section on the way forward below (6).
Through the preparatory meetings at country level and the visits to four small farmer projects in Zimbabwe and South Africa by over 160 small farmers from east Africa, central Africa, Poland and France. This exposed farmers to different social, political and ecological environments and exposed them to fellow farmer achievements and innovations. In Zimbabwe, the two projects visited were on water harvesting and management in semi-arid regions and another on the building of development on indigenous knowledge and practices. In South Africa, the projects visited were around the development of a new farmer who has not had exposure to farming in much of her life. The projects showed the challenges faced by agricultural reform in the region and demonstrated the hope and passion that the people had. This fitted in well with the SFC farmer creed that, “Nothing can destroy the human spirit”.
Farmers celebrated their contribution to agriculture, natural resources management and sustainable development in their respective countries, as well as in Zambia where the road caravan was launched by the Minister of Agriculture. They asserted that they have improved crops over centuries using open pollinated varieties and that they improved animal breed too and this improved biodiversity should not be stolen and patented by anyone. They also pointed out that they have traditionally fed their populations and in the case of Uganda, that they still feed the entire population of 23 million people. But this contribution was under threat from the corporate sector, which are now controlling and pushing inputs, markets and eating habits. They also celebrated at the projects they visited and upon arrival in Johannesburg at the site where their planning and reflection was to take place, Shaft 17.
Increased farmer visibility in terms of their issues, their aspirations, the contribution to humanity in the past and present and in terms of their being a big part of the solution to sustainable development. This was achieved through holding over 10 interviews on radio and television at country level before the small farmer convergence, television, radio and print coverage during the launch of the caravan in Zambia. During this march, a Tanzanian farmer, Mathias Mtawale was asked how he felt said, “I feel angry, knowing the long journey that lies ahead of us. I realise that we are just at the beginning”. There is evidence that more issues became visible to farmers themselves. Journalists who accompanied and stayed with the SFC altogether produced over 50 articles on the Convergence and the Summit. Some of the articles were filed to their respective papers during the summit while most will be carried in a special Ground Up issue. While in South Africa, over 30 people were interviewed by radio and TV, local and international. Most of those interviewed were farmer leaders. Some of them (including myself) were interviewed more than once. We had a stand for exhibitions within NASREC, the civil society place. The farmers took turns to display their items and a bit of PELUM materials.
Farmers used their visibility to ensure that their issues were communicated as a way of lobbying. We also used our T-shirts, caps, banners, song, dance and drama to communicate our messages as farmers seeking a better world. For example, caps (printed in Kenya) read, “Recognise small scale farmers”. It was a special way of advocacy. We also printed and distributed a press statement and a farmers’ dream. These were also posted on the Summit Web during the summit through the assistance of IPSA. On one of the days, we got news that a GMO company was spreading word that African farmers want GMOs. We prepared and printed a pamphlet stating our case and moved into NASREC, and distributed the statement, African farmers present at the SFC say, “NO TO GMOs”. We also used our linkage with media to advocate for our issues. In the ISG, we ensured that our issues were taken aboard. Also in critiquing the UN Political Statement, we pointed out those areas that needed to be improved. Then on the last day of the Summit, those of us who stayed behind protested against the notion of free (but not so free and not fair) trade and against the idea that GMOs are good for Africa. Some of us were in the plenary while others stayed behind.
During the entire duration of the caravan and the SCF, we had 14 journalists who covered the events and filed stories to their 8 home countries. This helped increase the penetrative strengths of messages coming from the farmers. The print journalists wrote at least five stories each based on what was happening in and around the SFC and a special bulletin will be produced on the process and the events. The convergence helped journalists to deepen their understanding of small farmers and rural development matters from the farmers’ perspective. We produced and widely distributed 4,000 copies of a two-page document which succinctly summarised farmer nightmares and dreams, most of it in story form. We also produced and distributed a Press Statement, which was especially meant for media.
The SFC elevated the place of agriculture in the civil society by having Agriculture as one of the major groups again within the International Steering Group, which organised the Global People’s Forum. The Secretary General of PELUM joined the Group and providing the necessary linkage between the farmers and the political leadership of the civil society. It had its shortfalls but it provided direction and a rallying point. This was the group that over saw the setting programmes and chaired plenary sessions, and edited commission submissions. It was also the group that organised the march of 31 August. The objectives of the ISG was to build awareness about sustainable development, to share information on the same, to facilitate the building of an international social movement on sustainable agriculture, to develop a plan of action as well as to influence the UN deliberation before, during and after the Summit. In our closing session in the ISG, which we devoted to evaluation, it was agreed that each objective was achieved but with varying degrees of success. The tensions between the hosts and the guests, the northern and southern NGOs, the new and the old in the UN process could have been managed better. The group is made up of about 20 members, nearly half representing major themes and 2 for international NGOs and 8 representing regions of the world.
The SCF created a basis upon which future collaboration and networking among small farmer organisations within the region and beyond can be built. They produced country visions, which they will share with others during feedback sessions in their countries and communities. They agreed to form a Regional Forum of small-scale farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists and resettled farmers. The Forum intends to consolidate the accomplishments of the SCF process and carry forward the agenda of the “peasant”. This, in essence is the building of a social movement of producers. The platform that was offers small farmers a chance to contribute to the mainstreaming of the farmers' agenda in all sustainable development activities at national, regional and global levels.
Capacity building among farmers and development facilitators alike happened during the SFC process. The farmers learnt from each other in their countries and from other countries, especially during visits, group work and addresses by other people. They also learnt about processes at international level and attended sessions of commissions where they both contributed towards and learnt from, feeding the information in the larger group in the evenings and mornings. They also appreciated the difficulties of working together when there are three languages in use, several countries together and different emphases by members of the group. At another level, the council of farmers learnt through a gradual process of handover during the caravan and the SFC. In the caravan, committees were set up. These committees were made up of farmer leaders and PELUM facilitators. When we arrived at Shaft 17 we had external facilitators and PELUM facilitators leading the process. After two days, a Farmers’ Council was set up with one representative from each country, and from APM. Namibia, which is currently not a PELUM member country, was also represented in the council.
The process also led to and increased awareness about PELUM Association, especially within the civil society. As such, we foresee a situation whereby the membership grows. This was expressed by such organisations as Ndima Community Services of South Africa. Many potential and current funding partners who had an opportunity to visit or interview us expressed great admiration for the bold step PELUM had taken to facilitate this process. One of the key rural development facilitators in South Africa – the National Development Agency consulted PELUM on how best they could fund rural development in South Africa. A potential donor from France who had received our first and ambitious proposal was happy that we had managed to get things done and expressed interest to relate with us in future. The FAO SARD initiative also indicated interest to work with us in the most productive ways possible including in areas of documentation of good practice and dissemination, among producers, of good practice, having farmer exchange visits and building farmer capacity to engage policy makers. Another important linkage was with IFOAM (president and director of public relations), an international organic movement that is now dealing with both the trade issues and the social justice issues around organic farming and marketing. As a result of the meeting, there are possibilities for PELUM getting a discount on membership if all nine member countries plus the regional association join. When we met Vandana Shiva at the end of the WSSD she said, “If it were not for the small farmer convergence, MONSANTO would have taken over the show at NASREC”.
The SFC process helped PELUM to delve into the relevance of its advocacy policy and themes which are built around the following areas: Seed and Food Security; Sustainable Land Use; and Agricultural Trade. The SCF affirmed the relevance of these themes to the small farmers and added some dimensions and details. The dimensions added were those of fisherfolk, new and resettled farmers and landless people. The themes and sub-themes added are:
PELUM and the SFC co-hosted the Commission on Agriculture with the SAFS caucus. The session was co-chaired by the chairlady of the Council of Farmers. Four farmers from the SFC made presentations based on the deliberations that had gone on during the Convergence, which was informed by country processes. The commission was attended by some 400 people, making it probably the most well-attended. Positive feedback on the commission has been received both in terms of its process and outcomes. The GMO people who were planted in the room were given a chance to state their point but it was clear from the deliberations that GMOs were bad for African, sustainable and small holder agriculture.
The facilitation of the SFC (23-31 August) was done in several layers. The facilitation team played a major role in designing a programme for the first days and in the overall process. But on the third day, each country elected a farmer to form a Council of Farmers. The Council held daily meetings to assess the day and plan the following programme from then on. What happened was a relay and partial handover of the facilitation to the Council. The third layer of facilitation took place in country/networks meetings led by Farmer leaders; this appeared necessary to facilitate communication and overcome language barriers. Many participants regretted the fact that not enough inter-country exchanges took place. As facilitators we felt that during the early stage of the Convergence, it would be important to strengthen country coherence, which would in itself form the basis of a regional block.
The SFC process was also characterised by a two fold dynamics. An internal gradual building up of identity through presentations, messages, feedback sessions; and external interventions of the delegates at NASREC, SOMOHO, Sandton, Ubuntu and Earth Summit to deliver our messages and become more visible. The two dynamics strengthened each other and resulted in a renewed awareness of a Farmers’ presence, force and huge potential. Creativity was a feature of this double process; delegates expressed themselves through a variety of forms, stories, songs, dances, plays, pamphlets, banners, displays, drawings, pictures and poems. The closing ceremony was particularly symbolic where delegates were given seeds of hope to go and saw in their own soil and environment; a commitment to take back home the seed of solidarity and to nurture the plant of a social farmer movement at national, regional and international level. (by Yves Marche, one of the facilitators)
PELUM Association was a "Facilitator" in the process: working with farmer representatives and accompanying them in the whole process, from the country, to the Summit and back again. PELUM also facilitated by linking the small farmer leaders in the region with those from other parts of the world. During the entire process, PELUM members sensitised farmer leaders about the structural developments that have a bearing on them, facilitated agenda setting processes and the coming together of different farmer group to define a way forward. This was achieved through dialogue in countries and between countries.
The role of the farmer leaders/representatives consulted with their constituencies, listened to what they wanted and shared it with others at national and regional levels. The farmer representatives prepared papers and made speeches and presentations in their respective countries, at the launch of the road caravan in Zambia and at project sites in Zimbabwe and South Africa. They articulated farmer issues; interacted with media and some policy-makers at country level.
The farmer representatives also selected leaders during the SCF, celebrated small farmer contribution to humanity, facilitated programmes and went to plenary sessions in NASREC to present, they also spoke in the commission on agriculture and attended relevant commission where they made input and returned to the larger group to give feedback.
These organisations shared, shaped and implemented the idea of bringing farmers to WSSD for the SFC so that an effective social movement could be built. Two of them are farmer organisations, while the other two are NGOs working with farmers. These organisations helped us reach where PELUM is not active. They also brought experience in working with farmers, especially the two farmer organisations. NECOFA, which is based in South Africa, was critical in organising the logistics.
During this period, the PELUM members proposed the idea of a small farmer convergence. There was an internal discussion at the October 2001 Biennial General Meeting which was attended by some 40 delegates. The delegates set up a Task Force which met in November 2001 and outlined the scope, purpose, and programme for the small farmer convergence process. We were to bring together up to 2,000 small farmer representatives from all regions of the world. The meeting was attended by most members of the Task Force who agreed to hold a second meeting in Nairobi, in February 2002, to work with farmer leaders and deepen the planning. The Nairobi meeting did not go ahead because we failed to raise funds due to scope and the attendant big budget.
This phase was characterised by meeting in the different PELUM member countries where the BGM and Task Force deliberations were put forward to members. The members then went into the communities they worked with and presented the idea to farmer organisations, communities and leaders. The community representative agreed to the idea of engaging the world on policy issues. Then in each country, an agenda setting process was initiated. However, the lack of funds for the Nairobi meeting interfered with the momentum that was built in some of the countries.
There are two elements in this phase. One was the reshaping of the scope and issues that the Task Force outlined. This was influenced by two main actors, the farmer leaders themselves and some of the funding partners who received our proposal. This was a rewarding period in that the farmers began to speak for themselves. The other element was brought about by a meeting of the Task Force and the Board members in Lesotho at the end of April 2001. This redefined scope of the small farmer convergence. We aimed to bring 300 farmer representatives from east and southern Africa and to work with other interested farmer groups from other parts of the world.
This phase was characterised by renewed strength and conviction among PELUM members, farmers and the funding partners. All countries began to resuscitate their efforts. Meetings were held, issues were defined and alternatives generated. Songs were compiled, papers were prepared and media was engaged. In nearly all the countries, there was a process of participating in government WSSD processes, to try and influence thinking from there. We wrote new proposals and sent them out, met many funding partners and explained the changes. We met the Civil Society Secretariat in South Africa and got briefed on the issues. We visited interested potential partners including NECOFA, INADES, APM and Via Campesina and sold our idea. They agreed to join. We also used the World Food Summit to announce the Small Farmer Convergence and we received tremendous inspiration. We linked up with IPSA who helped us get accredited by the United Nations so that we could access the UN deliberations. We took on the challenge to host a commission and we decided to implement the idea of a road caravan from Lusaka to Johannesburg. In the last days of the phase, we synthesised issues coming from different countries. Our major weakness in this phase was that we could not bring farmers to the Task Force meeting, which we held in July in South Africa. This was due to limited funding.
This was the time when the farmer leaders and representatives met fellow farmers from different parts of the world, shared ideas and worked out a way forward. It was also a time when a large part of the leadership process was handed over to the farmer leaders and representatives themselves. The relationship building was at two levels: the level of the inside where those attending the SCF spent 8 days working together in addition to the four days of travelling together (for 160). The other dimension, which is discussed already above was that of linking with other farmer organisations and leaders such as Vandana. A lot of tasks were done in groups and presented in the plenary, a process that led to the building of a common identity among farmers wherever they came from. Solidarity was also built through cultural expression moments. Solidarity with the rest of civil society was expressed through attending sessions in NASREC, the People’s Earth Summit, Soweto Mountain of Hope and Ubuntu and by participating in the march and in the protests on the last day of the Summit. The country visions and the idea of a Regional Forum discussed below (6), were the greatest manifestation of the solidarity. There was also solidarity expressed with other farmer groups and organisations.
The 300 delegates of the Small Farmer Convergence, decided to set up a Regional Forum of Small-scale farmers, pastoralists and traditional fisher folks.
Our rationale for the Regional Forum is to consolidate the development of a producer movement and build on our common aspirations, learning and linkages made in the period of leading to and during the SFC.
PELUM Association should accompany the movement by enhancing their capacity to organise and to link up with strategic partners;
Parallel event in conjunction with the WSSD 2002
We, the South African Small Scale Farmer’s through our own efforts are already addressing the issues of sustainable development, food security, and poverty eradication.
We invite to join us as we address the following issues:
We are calling for a National stakeholder meeting to address the issues of Small-scale Farmers in South Africa by 2004 and the whole of Africa by 2005
We stand for:
WE WILL SPEAK WITH ONE VOICE TO SUSTAIN OUR MOTHER EARTH
We the small-scale farmers meeting as a Small Scale Farmers Convergence at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) from 22 August to 1 September 2002
We therefore come here to speak as a united and alongside other
civil social actors - governments, the United nations and the rest of the world so that our issues and recommendations will be an integral part of the deliberations and outcomes of WSSD.
Land, water, plant and animal genetic resources and minerals have been communically owned throughout generations and, therefore, should never be transferred to private ownership for selfish and profit driven gains. We have a stewardship responsibility handed over from past generations to tend and leave for future generations;
That the rich knowledge, best practices and technologies developed by us farmers in providing farming, healing, worship and marketing of our their produce should never be alienated from us because they form the core of the our existence and livelihood;
That avoidable conflicts and wars have dodged the small-scale farmers and poor communities in Africa for far too long. Those in authority have ignored the soft voices of women and children crying and others dying. The western countries have gladly traded arms and propaganda to fuel these conflicts. We demand a stop to the merciless killing of innocent people. Farmers cannot produce food under these conditions;
Small-scale farmers have evolved systems of seed exchange and multiplication for future seasons and generations. This is key to food sovereignty at family and national levels. We say NO to genetically modified foods. We do not need genetically modified seeds. Our indigenous seeds are superior for our taste and style of farming. We small scale farmers farm for people and not for industry;
That our first priority is to feed our communities and before growing for the external market. We, therefore, call for internal market access in preference to external competitors. Capacity building, extension services and improvement of infrastructure in terms of roads, communication and markets must enhance this. Full access to the international market must be accompanied with consideration on equity, justice and the production environment.
That deliberate and urgent steps must be taken to develop and promote alternative renewable energy options, sustainable land-use systems and water management as a commitment to achieving sustainable development for all;
That poor communities, consisting mainly of labourers, landless people and small scale farmers and their families, have suffered most from HIV/AIDS. We are also concerned that common childhood diseases and other preventable diseases, such as malaria and TB, have continued to decimate our populations at an alarming rate. Health for all must be made a reality; and,
Our communal resources (land, forests, wildlife, minerals, water etc) have been plundered by a few powerful people and private companies to the detriment of all. Further the pollution and degradation of the earth has been blamed on the poor communities, paying a blind eye to the big industries that are responsible for industrial waste and gas emissions.
That foreign debt has continued to cripple poor countries economies with serious consequences on food security, health and education impacting most heavily on women and children. We therefore call for further debt cancellation and a re-dedication of these funds to services provision for poverty eradication.
Everybody must be responsible for ensuring a safe, clean and sustainable world.
As small-scale farmers we have some answers – we will show the way.
