The interesting Newsletter of Sos Faim Interesting arrives with some contents related to Family Farming:

• - Video on agroecology.
• - The contradictions of AGRA program.
• - Financial Speculation: NGOs make their voices heard.
• - Price volatility: evidence of a producer from Burkina Faso.
• - 20th Anniversary of Sos Faim Luxembourg.
• - When strengthening the rights of women can help combat poverty.

The need to strengthen the role of women and men family farmers is evidenced once again, as well as the importance of ensuring their access to natural resources, technology and public investment, in the fight against Hunger.

Civil Society and the United Nations' system will share a common logo for the International Year of Family Farming 2014, after the International Steering Committee for FAO's IYFF-2014 program assumed the use of the already existing logo, widely used so far by the civil society.

La Revista Agraria. Cepes (Peru). March, 2013.

(In spanish)

On World Water Day, it is more necessary than ever to claim the legitimate right of men and women family farmers to have sustainable access to this vital resource.

Rigoberto Turra, president of MUCECH, offers in this interview some clues to better understand the situation of Family Farming in Chile.

Several Swiss organizations have recently joined forces in a National Committee, while Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers in France) and AFDI have agreed to lead the international year in the Hexagon, where the Ministry of Agriculture has signed a document of recognition to Family Farming.

The WCC of the IYFF-2014 hold a meeting 29-30 January. Its role was strengthened in setting the objectives and principles that will guide civil society in its celebration of the International Year of Family Farming 2014.

The Government of Bolivia enacted the Law of Indigenous Peasant and Native Economic Organizations.

Summary of activities of civil society in 2012 under the World Preparation Program for the IYFF-2014.

The Costa Rican Civil Society advances on preparing its activities for the IYFF-2014. As part of the program, it is planned to promote a decree to declare the National Committee a body "of public interest".

Agricultural organizations and other associations of the civil society join forces in Burkina Faso and Nepal to promote Family Farming.

Today is the first anniversary of the declaration of the International Year of Family Farming-IYFF-2014, by the UN General Assembly, on December 21rst 2011.

The Informal International Steering Committee for the official program of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) 2014, lead by FAO, started its path on November 27, 2012, with the objective of stimulating and guiding the efforts generated around the program that will be developed by the FAO on the occasion of this important event.

Such valuable and exemplary commitments strengthen the expectations of making the International Year of Family Farming 2014 a great process of decisive changes in favour of family farmers.

This new body of the civil society will work to take advantage of the International Year of Family Farming 2014 in order to improve the living conditions of rural families, as well as food and nutrition security among the Costa Rican population.

A century after the adoption of the Land Act and the failure of the land reform two decades ago, groups of peasants in South Africa continue to fight for equal access to resources and to the benefits of agriculture. The claims and the request for support of these farmers will be the first Just Cause-IYFF 2014. Send to us your Just Causes, and we will promote global solidarity with them!

Today, October 15, the International Day of Rural Women, it is still necessary to claim and support the daily contribution of millions of women in the fight against hunger and for the balance of rural areas.

The creation of this group represents an important step toward the organization of civil society in favor of Family Farming.

The FAO head office hosted a technical meeting, a new milestone towards the preparation for the IYFF 2014.

FAO welcomes the initial report on the IYFF 2014 and invites the nations around the world to boost its holding.

This body will promote concrete activities around Family Farming as an "opportunity" to promote a shift in the agriculture development model; associations from Colombia and Switzerland are also moving toward that direction.

CAOPA stresses before FAO the role of sustainable fishing of sardines as a guarantee for food security and urges to regulate the West African fisheries.

Several organizations of farmers and NGOs on the continent held a meeting in Brussels, in order to strengthen the European involvement in the preparation of the International Year of Family Farming.

"A great moment of solidarity and clamor for land, for rural women and men".

The Organizing Committee of the International Year of Family Farming - IYFF, is pleased to invite you to the International Seminar:

The Role of Family Farming in the Construction of the Development with Sustainability

The Organizing Committee of the International Year of Family Farming - IYFF, is pleased to invite you to the International Seminar:

The Role of Family Farming in the Construction of the Development with Sustainability

The statement calls out to the inadequacies of current fisheries policies in this country where fishing figures prominently in the economy and food security of populations, and gives the vision of artisanal fishermen and Greenpeace for a sustainable and equitable management of fisheries resources in Senegal.

In 2010, 21% of French farms used direct sales to sell their production. According to a study done by the French Ministry of Agriculture, in total, 107,000 farms used short marketing channels.

We have got finally the good news that many of our organizations have been waiting for. Today, December 22nd 2011, at 4.55 pm, New York time, the UN General Assembly has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming-IYFF.

Peak oil - a peak in global oil production when a significant proportion of recoverable resources have been produced - will induce several changes in the way we produce and distribute agricultural commodities, especially food. How will the current excessive and wasteful dependence of agriculture on fossil fuels be affected once oil becomes expensive and supplies decline?

Last December 9 was enacted the Law No. 29811, which establishes a moratorium on the production and entry of living modified organisms into the country for a period of 10 years.

A forum-workshop entitled "Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation of Small Scale Farmers and Fishers in Southeast Asia" was held in Quezon City, Philippines, last Nov 24-25.

Yesterday, the Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa began. Here, the possible successor resolution to the Kyoto Protocols will be discussed.

The sharp increases of agricultural and food prices in 2007/08 and 2010/11 have resulted in enormous costs to the population of Southern countries and have revived the debate on the need of market regulation in order to ensure global Food Security.

Anne Moore, the Irish Farmers Organisation (IFA) has been awarded for its innovative farm. She develops 'a milking once a day', based and focused on the pasture low-cost production of high quality milk

The First Workshop of Experts on Family Agriculture was held between 3 and November 4. This meeting was organized by the FAO through Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger Initiative. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss and address the different areas of small and medium scale agriculture, and generate consensus and conclusions regarding the potential and the strengthening of Family Farming.

We encourage you to read the article "Dialogues about the International Day of Rural Women" written by Lorenzo Soliz, Director General of CIPCA and member of the Board of Directors of the World Rural Forum.

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Rising food prices, climate change and food riots have put agriculture high on the international agenda. Too much of the current policy debate focuses narrowly on increasing the volume of food, and assumes that industrial agriculture and biotechnology are the only options for feeding a growing global population. Alternatives do exist. The Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Development and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy have produced a new report documenting successful approaches in three countries:

- In Cambodia, the Center for Studies and Development of Cambodian Agriculture (CEDAC) and Farmer Nature Net (FNN) have promoted the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), increasing rice production by 61 percent, bolstering incomes, reducing chemical fertilizers and using water resources more efficiently. The groups have educated local officials on the program's success. Now more than 130,000 farmers are involved, and the Ministry of Agriculture is seeking to expand SRI throughout Cambodia.

- In the Philippines, the local agroecology movement emerged as an element of resistance to the Marcos regime and the dominance of transnational corporations in local production. Since then, national farm networks, working with local NGOs and the faith community, carried out public campaigns to reclaim Philippine agriculture and to develop appropriate organic agriculture standards.

- In Indonesia, members of Boyolali Organic Rice Farmers Association (APPOLI) and the Indonesian Peasant Alliance (API) joined forces to make organic certification processes affordable and culturally acceptable to farmers while meeting consumers' needs. Learning from similar approaches in Brazil, the networks developed a local Participatory Guarantee System to ensure farmers get a fair price, while consumers are able to buy organic goods at lower cost.

Document

Source: www.asianfarmers.org

Rising food prices, climate change and food riots have put agriculture high on the international agenda. Too much of the current policy debate focuses narrowly on increasing the volume of food, and assumes that industrial agriculture and biotechnology are the only options for feeding a growing global population. Alternatives do exist. The Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Development and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy have produced a new report documenting successful approaches in three countries.

Document

Source: www.asianfarmers.org

The following document outlines some of the claims in guard and promotion of family farming for their inclusion in the compilation document RIO +20.
It is based on the recommendations included in the Final Declaration of the "World Conference of Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth" that was held in Bilbao between the 5th and 7th of October 2011.
The Rio +20 Conference seeks to renew the commitment of world leaders for Sustainable Development. The conference content will swing around two themes, the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, and the institutional framework for sustainable development.
The development organization World Rural Forum (WRF), whose field of action is solidarity-based rural development based on Family Farming related rural advocacy, launched in 2008 an international campaign aimed at UN request for the Declaration of an International Year of Family Farming. This campaign has been gaining legitimacy in the form of more than 365 formal accessions agricultural organizations, civil society and governments in more than 60 countries around the world.
As of today, October 31, 2011, we face the imminent Declaration by the UN General Assembly, of the International Year of Family Farming in 2014.
In this sense, the FRM considers that the Rio +20 Summit can be a great opportunity to achieve the highest recognition of FF in the legislative framework and political world in the coming years.
The final document of Rio +20 should include the importance of family farming, as linked to Green Economy, as the most viable alternative to eradicate hunger and poverty in a sustainable way in the world

The following document outlines some of the claims in defense and promotion of family farming for their inclusion in the compilation document RIO +20. It is based on the recommendations included in the Final Declaration of the "World Conference of Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth" that was held in Bilbao between the 5th and 7th of October 2011.

Document

On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 62/136 states that on October 15 of each year shall be announced and will be officially celebrated the International Day of Rural Women.

The Family Farming World Conference finished with a large participation of representatives of the rural world on five continents and a very high level of documents that will soon at your disposal on the website.

Tomorrow will start in Bilbao the Family Farming World Conference: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth.

The new wave of land deals is not the new investment in agriculture that millions had been waiting for. The poorest people are being hardest hit as competition for land intensifies. Oxfam's research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests.

Source: Oxfam

Companies and governments must take urgent steps to improve land rights outcomes for people living in poverty. Power relations between investors and local communities must also change if investment is to contribute to rather than undermine the food security and livelihoods of local communities.

Paper presented by Esther A. Penunia, Secretary General, Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), to the UN expert group meeting on "Enabling rural women's economic empowerment: institutions, opportunities and participation?" organized by UN Women in cooperation with FAO, IFAD and WFP on Sep 20-23, 2011 in Accra, Ghana

After the return of José María Zeberio, Executive Secretary of the WRF, and Jose Antonio Osaba, IYFF Campaign Coordinator, from New York, WRF wishes to inform you about the activities of the four- day stay and the excellent results that were obtained.

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The 'Deadline' film now available on internet

This draft is an initiative supported by the Spanish Government to promote and encourage effective equality between men and women on rural areas

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Farmers' dynamics in different provinces of the DRC

Document available in Spanish

Every day we get new information on hoarding of land in Africa. Even the World Bank, which is not neutral in this process reflects on the matter.

To feed the world without destroying the planet the southerners should be less poor. (...)". Marc Dufumier, Agricultural Development Specialist.

The meeting for the International Year of Family Farming Campaign (IYFF) for the American continent, was held last November 13-14, in Brasilia, Brazil.

The meeting brought together over 80 representatives (around 30% of whom are women) of peasant organizations and rural NGOs and experts in family agriculture of 13 countries in America, and representatives of the governments of Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.

The meeting was organized by the World Rural Forum (WRF), COPROFAM, a regional alliance of national farmers organization in 7 countries in MERCOSUR, and CONTAG, the national peasant and rural workers federation in Brazil, who also served as local host.

During the opening ceremonies, AFA's Secretary General, Esther Penunia, gave a solidarity statement.

"We have the same concerns and the same aspirations... We want to work and journey with you for a UN declaration for an international year for family farming... Together, we can achieve this goal," Ms. Penunia said.

The Asia meeting for the IYFF campaign was held in March, in New Delhi, India.

The American IYFF meeting resulted in concrete policy proposals on six thematic areas: rights to land and other natural productive resources, access to markets and trade policies, rural women, access to technology and its adaptation to family farming, agricultural production and climate change, agricultural associations and agricultural policies.

from AFA E- Bulletin

List of organizations

On October 24th 2010 was held in Lilongwe, Malawi, the African Encounter on the Campaign for the proclamation by the UN of the International Year of the Family Farming-IYFF.
More than 60 representatives of the 5 Peasant Federations of the continent and many rural development NGOs gathered to share a tight schedule.
Mamadou Cissokho, Coordinator of the Platform of Peasant Organizations in Africa, gave the inaugural conference, followed by numerous interventions to place in context the reality of family farming in Africa. Africa, cradle of food traditions and cultural values, is suffering from unfair competition from subsidized food imports and the lack of local support.
The whole afternoon was destined to work in groups defining the activities necessary in each country to advance on the campaign. It was given special emphasis on efforts to gain support from African governments and greater recognition by the Civil Society and the media.
This continental meeting was supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development-CTA and by the French Catholic Committee Against Hunger and for Development -CCFD.
Between 25th and 27th October, The WRF and other organizations that were presented in the IYFF continental encounter, took part in other two major events:
- The Constituent Assembly of the Pan-African Farmers, PAFF, where were presented the results of the IYFF meeting.
- A seminar about Financing agriculture in Southern Africa, organized by the CTA.
All these meetings have enabled many contacts and support, especially the formal adhesion of PAFF to the IYFF Campaign that accepts its leadership on the field in Africa.

Last October 24th was held the African Continental Meeting of the IYFF Campaign. The five African Farmers Federations (EAFF, PROPAC, ROPPA, SACAU, UMAGRI) attended the meeting besides many NGO working in rural development in Africa.
Mr. Mamadoud Cissocko, Honour President of ROPPA, insisted in the fact that the Campaign compiles and puts in order the main issues that African Farmers organizations have been claiming during the last years. And he encouraged the participants in the Encounter to assume specific commitments to promote and boost the Campaign within the different forums and nets where they are represented.

The conclusions of the African Continental Meeting of the IYFF Campaign will be available in few days time.

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On July 29th-30th, has been held in Lilongwe, Malawi, several meetings aimed at coordinating the preparation of the IYFF Africa Continental Meeting, planned to take place in the last part of 2010.
The preparatory committee was composed of: The new President of ROPPA -Mr. Djibo Bagna-, the Secretary General of PELUM Regional -Mrs. Mari Jo Kakinda-, the Secretary General of INADES Formation -Mr. Francis Ngang-, the representative of PELUM Malawi -Ulemu Muthali-, the new WRF Africa Desk Coordinator -Mr. Jaime Balaguer- and the IYFF Campaign Coordinator -Mr. José Antonio Osaba-.
This working group has also had the opportunity of meeting some representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Agriculture and Food Security of Malawi, and with the local small farmers´ association NASFAM, who participated also in the last ministerial meeting.

The preparatory meeting for the IYFF Campaign American Continental Gathering will be held in Mar del Plata (Argentina) on May 31. The American IYFF Continental Gathering will take place later this year.

The Asian meeting of the Campaign for the International Year of the Family Farming has ended and has been a great success. For two days, representatives from various organizations what supports the campaign, have met in Delhi to discuss the initiatives will be launched in Asia. The participants have decided that Marlene Ramirez of AsiaDHRRA and Mr. Chengal Reddy of CIFA are going to be the representatives of the continent in the World Consultative Committee to support the Campaign.

ILEIA network, attached to the campaign, has posted on his blog a chronicle of the Asian Continental Meeting held between 23 and 25 of March in New Delhi. A representative of this association was present at the meeting.

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The Campaign for the International Year of Family Farming has received numerous accessions in recent weeks, including most notably that of the Basque Development NGO Coordinator. This has been published in the coordinator's website.

The organization Kenya Biodiversity Coalition has issued a press release denouncing the importation of 40,000 tons of GM maize from South Africa to Kenya.

Representatives of the World Rural Forum are visiting Costa Rica and El Salvador to raise awareness of the Campaign for the International Year of the Family Farming. The first stop was Costa Rica where they held in an open forum about this event, involving representatives of the Costa Rican Government, RUTA Program , PDRR, CONACOOP and ANAMAR.

Marc Dufumier, professor of Comparative Agriculture and Development, has given an interview to Telerama.fr, there he analyzes the situation of French and European agriculture.

The trip continues through Central America an the representative of World Rural Forum reach Nicaragua. In Managua, there has been a meeting with representatives of the 4 guilds of the PDRR, there the representative of the WRF made a new presentation of the Campaign. At that meeting the local representatives take the compromise of getting the accession of the Minister of Agriculture of Nicaragua.

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During the trip was held a preparatory meeting of the American Continental Meeting of the FFIY Campaign, reaching important agreements. In this sense, the Continental Meeting will be hold in Brasilia in late November 2010 in the framework of the XIV REAF, relying mainly with the participation of many representatives of agricultural and rural development NGOs. Organizers will be the WRF and COPROFAM (Confederation of Family Farmers Expanded MERCOSUR), with the collaboration of the REAF's Brazilian Section's Secretariat.

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We are updating and summarizing this report with the last events until September 2010.

Updated version of the Conceptual document´s Summary, including Traditionnal Fishing.

We have incorporated the issue of Artisanal Fisheries to the Concept Paper of the Campaign for AIAF, at the request of Fishermen's Associations.

In the words of Jacques Diouf, the General Director of (FAO), "the time has come to re-launch farming, and the international Community should not squander the opportunity".

For our organisations, coordinated by WRF, the celebration of an International Year dedicated to family farming would create a unique opportunity to develop means, which would assure in the medium and long term, a prosperous and sustainable family agriculture development and, as a result, in the rural areas on all the continents, especially, in the developing countries.

We are updating and summarizing this report with the last events. In the world today there are 3000 million people who live in the countryside.

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On 23 March the Indian city of New Delhi will host the Asian Continental Meeting to mark the International Year Campaign for Family Agriculture.

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The Declaration of the first Forum of the Parliamentary Front Against Hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, held on 4 and 5 March in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, decided to support the Campaign for the International Year of the Family Framing.

With two weeks remaining to the Asian Continental Meeting of IYFF Campaign, more than 250 organizations have given their support to the Campaign. Recent accessions have come from Malawi, Uganda and Romania.

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Yesterday concluded in Rome on 3rd Farmers' Forum, which met peasant organizations around the world to agree on a text to be submitted to the Governing Council of IFAD, which begins today, February 17, in Rome. This text was included an appeal to the International Year of Family Farming.

On 15 October there will been celebrate worldwide the International Day of Rural Women. That is why the World Rural Forum has been receiving contributions on this topic.

ATOL Provide Methodological Support Development Initiatives-ATOL is a Belgian NGO founded in 1972, which has numerous cooperation projects.

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The Research Group on Tourism and Sustainable Development Planning-GIPTDS of the National University of Colombia, with headquarters in Palmira, issued a press release in which it endorsed the International Year of the Family Farming.

The municipalities of Los Corrales de Buelna, Ramales de la Victoria, Soba y Santoña have joined the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farming.

Ecumenical Center for Development and Social Action NORTH -CEDEPAS NORTH is a Peruvian NGO founded in 1984, which has numerous cooperation projects in the north of Peru.

The municipalities of Colindres, Torrelavega, Villacarriedo, Medio Coeyo, Ruente and Polanco have joined the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farmer. Other 7 city councils from Pakistan joined that in last September.

We received some news about the events that have been celebrated on the International Day of Rural Women.

During the course of the last session of the Expert Forum on Food Security, the FRM took the floor to promote to a wide audience of ambassadors, experts, officials from FAO and IFAD, NGOs, representatives Universities, etc.. Campaign for the AIAF.

Manitese is an Italian NGO founded in 1964, which has numerous cooperation projects in the south and the north of the world and experiments with lifestyle based on sustainability.

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Article published in the journal INTA written by Tomás Loewy.

French Agricultures and International Development-AFDI, a French rural organization, joined the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farms.

The Desk Coordinator for Asia of World Rural Forum, Miren Larrea, has returned from her trip to the continent with the satisfaction of having had fruitful meetings with various local organizations, also have begun to shape the projects of the Asian Regional Meeting of International Year of Family Farming scheduled for 1-4 December, in New Delhi, capital city of India.

The National Council for Sustainable Rural Development-CONDRAF is promoting two major events for the 10th of October at 14 hours, at the stand of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) at the Sixth National Family Farming Fair (to be held in Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro).

Haurralde Fundazioa, a NGO from the Basque Country which aim is the defence of rights of childs and women, joined the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farms.

French Committee for International Solidarity-CFSI, a group which is composed of14 NGOs, joined the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farms.

The network of Peasant and Producers organizations in West Africa (ROPPA) has members in 13 different countries and deserves a great international relevance. ROPPA is a member of the IFAD´s Farmers Forum, and has been recognized as a dynamic and trustable federation. We have received also the adhesion of the East Africa Farmers´ Federation, a growing and reliable force. Both Federations have a very relevant presence in their respective regions.

Agro-alimentary Cooperative consists of 16 Regional Federations and Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives (FUTs) and Sergacan (Cooperative of 2nd degree from Cantabria). At the meeting of its Board of Directors held, on September 22 in Madrid, decided to join the Campaign for an International Year of the Family Agriculture.

Ms. Miren Larrea, Asia Desk Coordinator of the World Rural Forum, is visiting Pakistan and India, for the preparation of the IYFF Asia Continental Meeting, which will take place during the first week of December in New Delhi. The aim of the December Encounter is to assess and to strengthen the Campaign of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF).

The G-8's $20 billion initiative on smallholder agriculture, launched at the group's recent summit in L'Aquila, Italy, is a potentially historic breakthrough in the fight against hunger and extreme poverty. With serious management of the new funds, food production in Africa will soar. Indeed, the new initiative, combined with others in health, education, and infrastructure, could be the greatest step so far toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed effort to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by half by 2015 .

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The representatives of COPROFAM and AFA, farmers organizations, have asked to Farmers' Forum to support the Campaign for the International Year of the Family Farming.

Our last IYFF report was dated December 2009. We would like to update it now, February 2010, to catch up the strong dynamics of the IYFF Campaign.

On 28 and 29 January the Senegalese city of Dakar was the scene of some workshops for preparing the African Continental Meeting of the Campaign of the International Year of the Family Farming.

José Antonio Osaba, Campaign Coordinator IYFF, held on January 25 in Paris several meetings with representatives of Dossier et Débats pour le Développement Durable-4D, French organization working for Sustainable Development; International Federation of Agricultural Producers-IFAP and the heads of African and Asian sections of the Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development-CCFD Terre Solidaire.

The Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development, French NGO for development, joins the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farming.

The Ministry of Agriculture of the Central American country of El Salvador has officially joined the campaign for the International Year of the Family Farming. In parallel, last December joined CONDRAF, National Council for Sustainable Rural Development, and CONSEA, National Council for Food Security and Nutrition, both from Brazil.

In the coming days the Campaign Coordinator for the International Year of the Family Farming, José Antonio Osaba, is going to hold several working meetings in Paris and Dakar.

We have in our hearts and our minds all the organisations which support the campaign in favour of the International Year of Family Farming, trying to assure that their common proposals form part of the aspirations of the greatest number possible of associations and institutions. It is of the greatest importance that the UN endorses Family Farming: peasantry, indigenous, pastoral and community farming, and by extension, craft fishing, by declaring an International Year of Family Farming as a sign of recognition of the efforts of the hundreds of millions of country women and men to produce the food that humanity needs.

Lettre Hebdo d'Afdi n°287

With the Ministry, have joined the campaign, Candido Iturriaga Foundation and the Belgian NGO Broederlijk Delen (Share as siblings).

In recent days we received more accessions to the campaign from Asia. The organizations that have joined are CamboDHRRA, Cambodia; ThaiDHRRA Thailand and DHRRA Malaysia, all development NGOs. Also from Indonesia has joined WAMTI, organization of farmers and fishermen.

AFDI's electronic newsletter provides us with a new chronicle from Geneva, where is celebrating the WTO summit.

CIFA's article published in the Indian newspaper Business Standard.

AFDI's electronic newsletter provides us with a new chronicle from Geneva, where is celebrating the WTO summit.

The inter-ministerial conference of WTO, held these days in Geneva with the participation of 2700 members of the 153 national delegations, aims to advance the technical aspects of the Doha Round to make possible a political agreement at the highest level in the regulation of international trade in 2010 as the culmination of that Round. U.S. is the key country, and perhaps less willing to reach agreement.

More information

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Yesterday we celebrated the last day of the Parallel Forum of Civil Society on Food Sovereignty, a very beautiful experience of warmth, common purpose, a plurality of inputs and sensitivities, which greatly strengthened the coordination between organizations and networks worldwide. The strength and legitimacy of the large peasant family, pastoral, fisherman, Indian world has increased.

Yesterday, Monday 16th November, was an intense day of work in the Forum parallel of Civil Society for Food Sovereignty. Through the four thematic groups and the groups of women, young people and country people and the construction of Alliances, we continued defining our contribution to the final document which will be submitted to a vote today, 17th November, the day of the conclusion of our work. This final document will be officially presented to the World Summit on Food Security of the governments in the FAO headquarters tomorrow 18th November.

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Author: S.M. ASIM*. Director General in RDF
Organization: Rural Development Foundation

Author : Ms Dwi Astuti
Organization: Bina Desa

Authors: Dr. Wen-Chi Huang and Mr Jeun-Sheng Lin
Organization: TaiwanDHRRA

Author: Pote Chumsri, Ph.D- Secretary General
Organization: Farmer Federations Association for Development Thailand (SorKorPor)

Author: Lani Eugenia, executive secretary
Organization: Indonesia Farmers Society (WAMTI)

Author: Dr. Wen-Chi Huang
Associate Professor, Dept. of Agribusiness Management,
Joint Appointment with Dept. of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation
National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Taiwan

Organization: KAFF-Korean Advanced Farmers Federation

Author: CIFA
Organization: CIFA

Summary report of Lawrence I. Hewes Jr.

Documents collected by the association Accompaniment Methodological Development Initiatives-ATOL.

Paper conducted by the National Commission for the Rural Development-CNFR from Uruguay.

We continue receiving documents for the Rural Women's Internatinal Day.

Paper about Family Farming in Brazil, written by the American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.

In 2008, the intensity of the food crisis shed light on the world's hunger problem.
Indeed, with 963 million people affected, almost 1 out of 6 people currently suffers from hunger. The fight against this scourge requires, beyond the well intentioned declarations, a stronger, better organised and more coherent mobilisation of the international community.

At present, such a policy framework, that reunites all actors, does not exist. The framework for global action set out by the United Nations special team, created in April 2008, puts an emphasis on working to coordinate actors in the field on a national level.
However, there is no political area on the international level enabling more mutually coherent commercial, agricultural, energetic, financial and environmental policies which would all influence world food security.

The Agriculture and Food Commission of Coordination SUD undertook this study in an attempt to put family farming back into it rightful place as the core business of development in the South. It underlines the benefits of small farms for employment, poverty reduction, cost effectiveness, reducing hunger, respecting the environment and restoring life to rural areas.
The study is based on bibliographies and case studies drawn up by partners of Commission members. This document is an overview of this study1 and sets out the main results of the process. The first and second parts address the vital importance of small farms, and paradoxically, the lack of interest shown in them until recently by international development policies.
In the third part, we set out what we believe to be the cogent arguments for defending family farming as an essential part of development in the Global South.

All countries present at the final intergovernmental plenary session held in Johannesburg, South Africa in April 2008 welcome the work of the IAASTD and the uniqueness of this independent multistakeholder and multidisciplinary process, and the scale of the challenge of covering a broad range of complex issues. The Governments present recognize that the Global and sub-Global Reports are the conclusions of studies by a wide range of scientific authors, experts and development specialists and while presenting an overall consensus on the importance of agricultural knowledge, science and technology for development they also provide a diversity of views on some issues.

IAASD document

From Asia we receive the experience of Huang Yan-Liang, member of the Executive Board of the Taiwan Dairy Farmers Association (TDFA) who also has his own farm "Yiu-Shen".

Agricultural Situation in Taiwan.

In Taiwan a process of Agricultural Reform is underway which Huang rates as a success, via which the sale and purchase of land is free via contract. The Taiwanese farmers have social security cover and private insurance.

Dairy Production
The Dairy Market is monopolised and individualised sale does not exist. The price of milk in Taiwan is the highest in the world (0.68$), a price which the farmers and the Government reach via an advance agreement.

The model of production is very intensive; the cows' lives are shortened, particularly because the greatest demand for milk is in the hot season, when production per cow is actually lower. This higher demand in summer is due to the fact that in Taiwan milk is consumed as an ice-cold drink.

As regards foreign dependence, Taiwanese farmers import almost all the feed they need and they have an import control - SOP- small outline packages.

Huang recognises that although the present and future are marked by the progressive increase in the size of farms, their ownership continues to lie in the hands of families, in which case we can continue to refer to family farming.
We encourage you to download Huang's full presentation here:

On behalf of the Unió de Pagesos, the encounter was attended by Salomó Torres member of the Comissió Permanent Nacional, as well as an organic wine grower and farmer.

The Unió represents 37,000 farms which cover practically all agricultural sectors (rice, citrus fruits, horses, etc.), homemade food products, etc. They also pay special attention to the incorporation of young people, women "dones", an example of which is that they are members of the Rural Women's Network, and the "elderly". They are setting up an organisation that will offer the support required by the retired farmers, a group which is growing in size and has little protection. They are also pioneers in Co-development, they recognised the need to incorporate foreign labour and decided to repay them by training the workers so that once they returned to their places of origin they could in turn train others. They also have a service to hire temporary workers and other support services.

In his speech, he wished to highlight the constant uncertainty in farmers' lives. "A farm that is profitable one year may not be so the following year". They suffer very sharp price variations which do not help in making it a more attractive sector for young people.

He also pointed out the need to redefine and reinvent agricultural cooperativism, which is based on a model created 120 years ago in a context that is very far from the situation we are in now. The redefinition is essentially required from the need to facilitate the marketing of the products in the best conditions for the farmers.
The cooperative is in charge of the transformation and marketing whilst the Unió de Pagesos brings together farmers who are offered different services. La Unió also acts as a pressure group before the Authorities, Agro-industries and the Distribution Chains. On the subject of distribution they have set up a campaign called Km 0 which refers to the reduction of middlemen in order to improve the farmers' margins.

You can access the paper via the following links:

From Africa we have the participation of Kunda Mwila, Head of Communication of the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU).

Agricultural Situation in Zambia.

Zambia is an inland country with no sea access, which has approximately 1.2 million small farmers.

The corn that is mainly produced during the rainy season is considered a "political crop" as corn flour is the basic food of the population. Other important productions in Zambia for export are soya, tobacco and cotton.

In Zambia the practice of Conservation Farming is becoming more and more common. The Zambian farmers who practice this type of farming are obtaining very good results, as the average yield they obtain with this productive model is 5 ton/ha as opposed to 1.2 ton on average obtained from traditional production.

Market Access
Kunda wanted to emphasise one of the recurring problems among small farmers, access to the market.

For this reason, he emphasise the importance of working with short marketing circuits, thus reducing to a minimum the long chain of middlemen that is normally created from the farmer to the consumer.

In particular, he shared with those present a successful practice that this organisation set up in 2006 to enable farmers to find out the market prices of the goods they produce. This idea materialised by sending text messages to mobile phones. They are also working on other possibilities to improve access to the market via the Internet.

He ended his speech by advocating the need to organise the farmers, and highlighted that it is essential to the extent that gaining more dimension enables better attention to the purchasers' demands and improves their capacity for negotiation.

Here is a link from which you can access the presentation developed by the Zambia National Farmers Union.

From Peru, we have the participation of Luis Zúñiga, current Head of International Relations of the National Convention of Peruvian Agriculture - CONVEAGRO (Institutional Partner of the WRF). CONVEAGRO, institutional partner and member of the WRF's Executive Board, was created in 2000 and includes all of the agricultural trades in Peru, including rural development organisations and professional associations.

Agricultural Situation in Peru.

75% of poor people in Peru live in the countryside and the farmers are clearly invisible in the eyes of the government.
In 1969, a process of Agricultural Reform was carried out. The average size of 98% of the Peruvian farms is less than 20 ha, what's more, 83% of the farms have less than 5 ha of useful farming land, which means that smallholdings predominate in Peru.

As regards the associative movement of Peruvian agriculture, he wanted to highlight that during Fujimori's government, practically all agricultural associationism disappeared, and the current government led by Alan García appears to want to eliminate smallholding.

Strong Foreign Dependence
Approximately 100% of the wheat consumed, 65% of the corn and 100% of the barley used for the Food Industry, is imported from other countries. Even cotton, a product of which not long ago Peru was an important exporter is now also imported.

Control of the Price of Agricultural Inputs
The government needs to exercise certain control over the price of inputs. He also gave us the example of urea, CONVEAGRO, more specifically the rice farmers, agreed to purchase urea directly from Ukraine which caused its price to drop to half the price of that offered by 4 suppliers in Peru.

Lobby Actions
CONVEAGRO works actively on lobby actions and makes proposals and amendments to the Peruvian government. In his speech he also regretted the approval of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, and the fact that as a result of its ratification they are looking for new markets, as the majority "are sold".

In Peru, the phenomenon of invisible farmers is apparent; it seems that they are of no interest to the government as they make little contribution to the coffers. This proposal for organisation would also be positive for the government for the purposes of tax collection. This has led CONVEAGRO to launch a business organisation project for the farmers, in order to increase their capacity for negotiation, profit, etc.
Among other measures that CONVEAGRO proposes to the Government is for it to exonerate family farmers from paying taxes like the IGB which collects 19% of sales and an income tax as an incentive to maintaining and improving their production.