Esther Penunia

8/3/2019 Esther Penunia

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Speech

Introduction to the Family Farming World Conference :

Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth

by:

Esther PenuniaSecretary General, Asian Farmers Association (AFA)

Good morning to everyone.

Today, we, 200 women and men leaders of farmers organizations , civil society groups

and social movements, international intergovernmental institutions, key academic and

research institutions , in four continents of the world Africa, Americas, Asia, and

Europe we are all gathered here in Bilbao, Spain. I would say for three main things.

First, to celebrate the worth and importance of family farming in the global pursuit to

end poverty and hunger. Second , to analyze the issues and the problems confronting

those engaged in family farming. And Third, to formulate key policy and program

recommendations that will help improve the living conditions of those engaged in family

farming .

The objectives of this conference

celebrating the worth and importance of family farming :

We celebrate the worth and importance of family farming by capturing the essential

roles it plays in society in the theme of our conference : Feeding the World, Caring for

the Earth.

Farmers Feed the World. The report of the IAASTD ( International Assessment forAgricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development )says that there are

1.5 billion peasants working on 380 million farms, 410 million gathering the hidden

harvests of forests and savannas, 190 million pastoralists, 100 million peasant fishers ;

and in addition 370 million of them are from indigenous communities. In addition, 800


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million people are growing urban gardens. These people, and the membership of our

farmers organizations are these people we feed 70% of the worlds population.

IAASTD statistics show that 50% of the worlds cultivated food are produced by

peasants, 12.5 % of the food comes from hunting and gathering; 7.5 % of the food is

grown by citydwelling peasants for a total of 70%. Only 30% of the worlds food comes

from the industrial food chains.

Farmers Care for the Earth. Smallholder farmers serve as responsible stewards of the

land. Unlike industrial agriculture or factory farms, smallholders live on or near their

farms, and strive to preserve surrounding environment for future generations.

Smallholders are most likely to use sustainable farming techniques to protect their

natural resources and health. Also, smallholder farming communities have been

developing their own culture of coexistence with the environment that surrounds them

since the beginning of humankind. They have been known to practice integrated,

diversified farming to meet their nutritional needs; to reduce their risks and to return

the soils health.

We will start our conference by celebrating our worth and significance as farmers. Wewill have plenary sessions on first, the world economic situation, second, family farming

engine for rural but also global development; and third, the voice of farmers. Likewise,

throughout the conference, we will have opportunities, both during sessions and

informal conversations, to share the initiatives of our members in producing safe,

quality, organic food and in doing sustainable, agroecological approaches to family

farming. In both these formal and informal conversations, we hope to build solidarity

among our farmers, we feel a sense of self worth , we feel the dignity in family farming,and we learn and inspire each other.


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Analyzing the issues and problems in family farming

Yet, when we look at the face of the poor and hungry in the world , these are the

statistics from IAASTD, FAO, IFAD that bothers us : There are more than 1billion hungry

people in the world : 50% are smallholder farmers, 20% are rural landless, 10% are

pastoralists, fishers and forestdependents, and 20% are urban poor but take note, the

urban poor migrated from the mainly farming communities. Of the 1B poor people,

around 642M come from Asia and the Pacific, 265M from Sub Saharan Africa, 95M from

Latin America , Carribean and North Africa, and 15 M from developed countries.

Why , inspite producing our own food, our members, our constituents, are hungry , and

poor? In this conference, we would like to analyze the causes of our problems. This

conference would like to focus on seven main categories of issues confronting those

engaged in family farming : access to basic productive resources mainly land , water;

access to markets and price volatility; empowerment of women farmers as agents of

change and development; involvement of youth in farming; strengthening family

organizations;climate change and national/international policies on family farming.

Here, we describe our problematic situation , and what causes this problem. Then we

sort of dream what is the ideal situation of the farmers.

Preparatory plenary sessions will be conducted to introduce each topic with one main

presenter and several speakers . Care has been taken to have a good mix of speakers

from various stakeholders : farmers organizations, NGOs, academe, government and

intergovernmental organizations, so we can get varied perspectives on the issues. For all

the issue categories except climate change and national/international policies , we will

break out into working groups . On Day 1, at 4:306:00 pm, today, there will be twosimultaneous working groups : strengthening family farming organizations and youth in

family farming. On Day 2, tomorrow, at 2:304:30 pm, there will be three simultaneous

working groups : on women farmers, on access to land and water resources, and


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market access / price volatility. We will be asked to pick one working group per day. So if

you havent yet, please decide what group, per day, you would like to join.

Formulating key policy and program recommendations

In each working group, we hope to come up with some agreements on the ideal

situation for family farming . And then, we move on to a discussion on our

recommendations : what policies and programs should be put in place to achieve this

ideal situation? To whom are we directing these recommendations ? We hope to give

recommendations addressed to our governments, to inter governmental organizations

such as FAO, IFAD, WFP, WB, UN, as well as to ourselves FOs and CSOs.

Our Output : Final Declaration

One of the major outputs of this conference is a final declaration which will contain

major agreements and proposals capturing the synthesis of our analysis and

description of ideal situation as well as outlining our recommended policy and program

proposals to governments, intergovernmental organizations, to FOs and CSOs.

A first draft has been written by the organizers. A drafting committee has been

constituted, mainly composed of farmers organizations present here; and had its first

meeting last night. This draft will be revised daily to capture the results of our

discussions during the conference. And a final draft will be presented on the last plenary

session for more comments and validation. It will be possible and ideal that we are able

to finalize this declaration on Friday, but we are open to subjecting the declaration tomore discussions with our constituents before finally signing the declaration.

What do we do with this Declaration ? Most of us are part of the campaign for the

United Nations to Declare an International Year of Family Farming. The campaign has


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reached a new height when FAO, during its Conference last June 2011, endorsed it to

the United Nations. This Declaration can serve as a main reference when we engage our

governments and other UN agencies as to what policies and program will greatly benefit

our members or those engaged in family farming, at all levels local to national to

international. Some of us are already setting eyes on the upcoming Rio+20 processes

we can use this Declaration as well in our engagement in this process. Many of us are

part of the Farmers Forum processes of IFAD and the Civil Society Mechanism for CFS :

this Declaration can guide us as we join deliberations and discussions on these topics.

For example, in the upcoming CFS next week, the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the

Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of

National Food Security as well as the High Level Panel of Experts Paper on Food Price

Volatility will be discussed. We can refer to this Declaration when we make our

interventions in the meeting.

I hope I have given you a proper introduction to the Conference . Let me end by sharing

three sayings. In Korea, there is a saying that the dream of one person can quickly die,

but a dream shared by many persons will someday come true. In the Philippines, there

is a saying that one broomstick cannot clean a house, but many broomsticks tiedtogether can do the job . In Japan, there is a saying that tiny drops of water make up an

ocean. In this Conference, let us share our dreams and find our common dreams for

smallscale women and men farmers, fishers, pastoralists, indigenous peoples those

engaged in family farming. But dreams have to be realized with actions. Let us be

broomsticks tied together to clear away misguided, unfavorable policies and programs ,

both within our FOs and in our governments. While we do these things, let us be drops

of water that can form an ocean of hope and inspiration for all our members andconstituents, inspiring ourselves to unleash our potentials as change agents , so

together, we can have better, decent, happier lives for our children, and end hunger and

poverty in the world. END

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Esther Penunia