Statement FARMERS MAJOR GROUP
April 30, 2012
Meeting with BUREAU AND Member States
With less than 51 days to the Summit in Rio, we have a critical
opportunity to support the implementation of sustainable agriculture
and food sovereignty. We need to ensure essential human rights like
the right to food and water, and rights for peasants, smallholders and
family farmers. While farmers are often among the most affected by
the multiple crises, they also hold the solutions for sustainable
development in their hands. Many farmers consider the concept of
food sovereignty to be a comprehensive framework which addresses
the issue of poverty, hunger, climate and the environment, as well as
issues of human rights, and animal welfare. Food sovereignty
addresses poverty in both rural and urban areas through sustainable
local food systems.
To change the direction towards sustainability, countries must rethink
the path of development. The green economy as currently framed,
based on the financialization of nature and market-based solutions
will not sufficiently address the social aspect of development, nor will
it help us to achieve food sovereignty.
We are seeing important references upholding basic human rights
eliminated. Rights to nutritious, culturally appropriate food, and to
clean water and sanitation are absolutely necessary for any
sustainable development; farmers, fisher-folk, and pastoralists play
an indispensable role in realizing these basic rights. Therefore,
institutions and governments must also recognize peasants and
family farmers as rights holders.
The new path of development must entail the empowerment of
peasants, indigenous peoples, women, family farmers, smallholders,
artisanal fisher folk and pastoralists to produce and harvest. This
requires the rights to equitable access to and control over land and
seeds – regardless of gender, marital status, religious or ethnic
origins – and access to water, inputs, trade and markets.
The effective conservation of planetary biodiversity and natural
resources are integral. Through sustainable agriculture, such as
organic and climate smart, peasants and family farmers globally
produce 70% of the world’s food consumed. Addressing these issues
will only be accomplished with traditional agricultural
practices, agricultural research and development, infrastructure, risk
management instruments, innovation, and capacity building for
farmers and their organizations. A policy framework is needed in
support of this kind of agriculture, which contributes greatly to feeding
the world, and stands as a real solution to reverse the current trend of
climate crisis.
In order to be able to implement systems that nourish our people and
sustain our planet, institutional change is necessary, particularly in
the area of participation and empowerment of the most vulnerable,
the majority of whom reside in rural areas, especially rural women.
FAO's State of Food and Agriculture Report 2010-11 reveals that if
women farmers had the same access to productive resources as
men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent,
raising total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4
percent, enough to feed up to 150 million more of the world’s hungry
people, in turn reducing the number of hungry people in the world by
12 to 17 percent.
Policy prescriptions for agriculture must be consulted with farmers
and the most affected constituencies. No longer can institutions make
decisions based on volatile market signals. Farmers need to have
access to market information, and fair trade, including better prices.
We must defeat hunger while creating positive prospects for the
younger generation to settle in economically prosperous rural areas.
Our responses should be instructed by what people are demanding:
to implement food sovereignty; what many peasants and farmers
around the world are already implementing for the basis of their
livelihoods, fighting hunger with fresh, safe, nutritious, chemical-free
food, reviving rural economies, and preserving biodiversity.
