[IYRPsupportgroup] Fwd: Family Farmers: Rebuilding Agriculture and Transforming Food Systems

Tue Oct 13 19:36:07 MST 2020

Dear Colleagues,

Please find enclosed ILC  ALF  -AFA  Virtual Zoom Conference Declaration
from  Sustaining Family Farming in Asia-Pacific through inclusive
farmer-driven approaches
<https://sable.madmimi.com/c/25354?id=363768.3058.1.ce485760d2854a0b76d28992c8e714cc>,
held in October 6-7, 2020 for your reference.

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Family Farmers: Rebuilding Agriculture and Transforming Food Systems
<https://sable.madmimi.com/c/25354?id=363768.3057.1.f28d0ed460ef644512b50ead040ef83b>

Conference Declaration from Sustaining Family Farming in Asia-Pacific
through inclusive farmer-driven approaches
<https://sable.madmimi.com/c/25354?id=363768.3058.1.ce485760d2854a0b76d28992c8e714cc>,
October 6-7, 2020, Virtual Zoom Conference*
[image: Screenshot 2020-10-07 17.34.52]
[image: Screenshot 2020-10-07 17.34.57]

>From October 6-7, 2020, we, 180 women and men representatives of family
farmers, farmer organizations, civil society organizations, Indigenous
Peoples, public and private stakeholders, and advocates from 12 countries
in the Asia and the Pacific region, gathered in a virtual conference on
Sustainable Family Farming in Asia-Pacific through inclusive, family-driven
approaches. Together, we tackled the key contributions, roles, challenges,
and strategies of farming families, especially in responding to the
Covid-19 Pandemic and ending hunger and poverty as part of the global
Sustainable Development Goals and the United Nations Decade of Family
Farming.

We laud the heroic efforts of small farmers, farmworkers, fisherfolk,
Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists, rural women, and young farmers in this
pandemic as they persevered to supply healthy food to their households and
communities. Agriculture was even touted as among the most resilient
sectors amid this crisis. But long before the pandemic, 80% of the world’s
food producers were already small family farmers, half of whom were women.
Ironically, they also comprise half of the world’s poor and hungry.

However, we also recognize how family farmers in Asia-Pacific suffered
tremendous losses from the Covid-19 crisis. Food systems were heavily
affected by disruptions in the food supply chains and markets. Unable to
market most of their products, these family farmers had low to no income.
They had poor access to affordable farm inputs, adequate support services,
and access to credit. Their land rights are likewise threatened with the
loss of income and stagnation of tenure security programs. Land pawning may
surge with family farmers unable to pay off their debts pitted against
returning overseas migrant workers who may want to buy land as an
alternative source of livelihood. Small food-producing households,
particularly women-headed households, were often overlooked in government
assistance programs.

The Covid-19 crisis put importance on the existential role of small farming
families on local food systems for a country’s survival. Hence, we as a
collective in support of family farmers in Asia-Pacific, strongly believe
that Family farmers should be at the center of rebuilding agriculture and
transforming food systems. For this to happen in this Decade of Family
Farming, we assert that:

Family farmers need secured land rights and access to land, forests,
waters, and pasturelands. Without secure land and resource rights, any
development for family farmers and rural sectors may be lost. Land and
other asset reform programs that were suspended or hindered by the pandemic
should be implemented and completed for its target beneficiaries. Municipal
or local fishing waters need to be defined and delineated and reserved for
small fisherfolks. Ancestral lands and commons should be protected and the
rights of Indigenous communities recognized and respected. Women’s land
rights through reformed titling or inheritance laws should be recognized.
Land legislation should recognize the right of young farmers determined to
make the land productive to also own lands. Governments should apply the
Voluntary Guidelines on the Governance of Tenure of land, waters, forests,
and fisheries (VGGT) and the Responsible Agricultural Investments (RAI)
principles developed at the Committee on World Food Security. Further,
immediately repeal laws, policies and programs rolled out in the name of
COVID-19 response or economic recovery that are detrimental to or undermine
the rights of Indigenous Peoples, small farmers, farm workers, fisherfolk,
pastoralists, rural women, and young farmers.

Family farmers need better control, access to, and management of their
productive resources to ensure sustainable, climate-resilient
agro-ecological systems in farms, fisheries, forests, and pasturelands. The
mobility restrictions imposed even on agricultural inputs and services
emphasized the problem of relying on imported inputs for producing crops.
It emphasized the importance of small food producers’ having immediate
access to affordable and quality seeds, inputs, water resources, and other
support services and facilities. Thus, the supply of seeds and other
planting materials should be locally available or produced. Governments and
development partners should invest through adequate financial, technical
support in agroecological and climate-resilient food production with family
farmers. Extractive or destructive activities on the environment should be
avoided. Investments in agriculture should not harm the environment or the
welfare of farming families and communities.

Family farmers need better access to sustainable investments and local
markets with shorter supply, market and value chains, and improved
relationships and inclusive governance within the food systems. To counter
major disruptions in the food supply chains and markets, a viable solution
is to invest in more local market hubs to shorten the supply chain from
family farmers to consumers. This not only provides more opportunity for
local growth but also helps reduce transport emissions which is important
in battling climate change. The capacity of small producers to directly
engage consumers through online or onsite marketing platforms should be
enhanced as per the new normal. Assistance for local facilities for
storage, processing, and distribution should be available at community
levels more. Family farmers need responsible and sustainable agricultural
investments that protect their rights, preserve traditional Indigenous
culture, knowledge, and practices and that is equally beneficial to the
country and to local family farming communities. Relationships within food
systems between producers, suppliers, traders, and consumers should be
reviewed if they are fair or harmful to family farmers. Women likewise need
access to collateral-free financing.

Family farmers need to strengthen and expand agricultural cooperatives and
associations. Strong farmers organizations are crucial for influencing
policies and forwarding advocacy. Family farmers need to organize bigger
and better cooperatives and economic entities to achieve economies of
scale, consolidating their volume of production, their skills, and local
knowledge, and amplifying their voices in negotiations for better policies
and fairer trade.

Women’s rights and work in food systems and at home should be strongly
recognized and valued. Household agriculture in Covid time highlighted the
value of women’s work in agriculture which is 50-90% of farm work across
Asia from farming to marketing on top of care work and household
management. With women’s multiple roles, it is important to provide more
women-friendly tools and technologies as well as extension services for
women. Governments must also address the rise in domestic violence against
women and children in this crisis.

The youth should be supported to thrive in agriculture. Young farmers play
an important role in advancing agriculture, particularly sustainable
agroecological practices. With farmers getting older and the youth less
interested in agriculture, we are faced with the decreasing number of next
generation farmers. We need to change the perspective of the youth that
farming is an unappealing and unprofitable form of livelihood. This can be
done through viable programs and innovative methods with new technologies
and entrepreneurship support. The youth should also be encouraged to
participate in governance mechanisms from local to global levels.

We, therefore, call on governments to respond to these needs through
policies and programs under their National Action Plans that will
strengthen sustainable family farming systems and to support the
establishment and strengthening of inclusive multi-stakeholder approaches
and mechanisms for the UN Decade of Family Farming, such as the National
Committees on Family Farming. We strongly urge Asia-Pacific governments for
broader democratic space and involvement of family farming organizations
and CSOs in designing and implementing UNDFF plans and programs.

We also reiterate the calls for governments to recognize the role and
contribution of herders and pastoralists in agriculture and sustainable
development and for the United Nations to declare an International Year of
Rangelands and Pastoralists that will draw attention to the challenges they
face.

We vow to bring these demands to global discussions and platforms, such as
the Virtual meeting of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) this
October and a physical meeting in February 2021, the World Forestry
Congress in May 2021, as well as the Global Food Systems Summit in
September 2021. We urge all stakeholders to work for better normal in food
systems by transforming it into something more people-centered, equitable,
inclusive, and sustainable with farming families in the lead of building
back better. #

**Coming from the Regional Forum results of Sustaining Family Farming in
Asia-Pacific through inclusive farmer-driven approaches
<https://sable.madmimi.com/c/25354?id=363768.3059.1.a22adac1378fe66012da368508eb6b49>,
October 6-7, 2020, Virtual Zoom organized under the Community-based
Initiative 2 platform convened by the Asian Farmers Association for
Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and the People’s Campaign for Agrarian
Reform Network (AR Now!), together with the International Land Coalition
Asia and the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI). Analysis and
recommendations of other previous consultations and conferences were also
drawn from namely 1) Asian Farmers Policy Agenda for the International
Decade on Family Farming 2019-2028; 2) ANGOC Statement on Protecting Land
Rights and Ensuring Food Security in the Time of COVID, September 2020; 3)
Asia Pacific Women Farmers Forum Declaration, October 2017.*
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-- 
Best regards,

*Hijaba Ykhanbai*, Dr, Director, Environment and Development Association
*"JASIL"*
Bruun Selbiin-15, MAS building 2, #4314, Ulaanbaatar, MONGOLIA
Tel/Fax: (976)-11-329619   Mobile: 99282205 Web: *https://cbnrm.mn
<https://cbnrmjasil.wordpress.com/>*
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