The “Guide on international and regional instruments to defend and promote the interests and rights of family farmers” provides a comprehensive overview of international and regional legal frameworks and instruments that apply to the defence and promotion of family farming.  The guide is the result of a study carried out by the WRF together with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights with the support of the International Land Coalition (ILC).

The guide is supported by family farming organisations and CSO members of the WCC, who, through a joint statement, underline the existence of numerous international, regional and national instruments that recognise and protect, from different perspectives, family farmers and their vital role in addressing some of today’s most important global challenges, including resilient food systems, rural development, climate change and women’s empowerment.

The WCC Declaration calls for the faithful implementation of these international, regional and national agreements in defence of family farming in an interconnected and mutually reinforcing way in favour of family farming and the implementation of the UNFFD 2019-2028. The WCC reiterates in the declaration its strong commitment to working together with other actors in defining policy and institutional frameworks that strengthen family farming.

We invite you to ensure the wide dissemination of this guide so that it can be used as a tool in favour of family farming and family farmers around the world.

The generational renewal is one of the outstanding issues that the VI Global Conference on Family Farming will address

The future of Family Farming depends to a large extent on whether there are young people, women and men, who are willing to work in this activity.

The average age of farmers increases. In the Basque Country, where the World Rural Forum is based, for each farmer under 41 years old there are 13 farmers over 55 years old. [1]

The generational renewal is one of the great challenges for the immediate future and, together with the role of women, one of the outstanding issues that we will discuss in the VI Global Conference on Family Farming.

The official program of our conference includes two specific working sessions about youth and women. Both meetings will take place on the second day, Tuesday, the 26th.

It will be interesting to know their points of view and obtain their ideas and conclusions to incorporate them into the Agenda of the Decade for Family Farming declared by the UN.

There is a series of public policies related to basic services in rural areas, training, associative culture, access to credit and financing, access to land, among others, which should be applied to ensure that young people, women and men, take the witness of their elders and bet on Family Farming.

[1] Juventud Agraria en el País Vasco. Informe del FRM y Lorenzo Mz. De Salinas y Ocio.

This week we met with the highest leader of Álava and the Mayor of Bilbao

We continue taking steps towards March 25. On that date the VI Global Conference on Family Farming will begin. It will be in Bilbao and will bring together about 250 representatives of farmers organisations, cooperatives, governments, research centers and other organisations from around the world.

An important event for the future of Family Farming that will help to design the official Agenda of the Decade adopted by the UN.

Bilbao will be the previous step to the official launching of the Decade in Rome in May organized by FAO and IFAD. There will be adopted the contents of the Action Plan for the period 2019-2028 dedicated to Family Farming, following the Resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Those involved know the importance of the Bilbao Conference to improve the life of the people dedicated to family farming around the world.

But it is important that society also knows. Hence, these days we are making a great effort so that our message reaches the media.

It seems basic to us to raise awareness on how family farming has global consequences on issues that affect us all, such as food, migration, land management, climate change and sustainable development.

The role of the media is important; such is that of the Institutions. That is why, as World Rural Forum, we have recently appeared in the Spanish Senate. And this week we have met with the Deputy General of Álava, Ramiro González, and the Mayor of Bilbao, Juan María Aburto.

It is essential that the public authorities know the details of the VI Conference and the Decade; that they know that ending hunger is the second of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda. And that they commit to caring for a social and strategic asset of first order such as Family Farming.

A positive effect of the VI Global Conference before its celebration is the attention that the media is paying to Family Farming.

Newspapers and radios from the Basque Country have already informed of the details regarding dates and place, content, objectives and participants of the conference that will begin on March 25 in Bilbao.

But not only that. The Basque newspaper of greater diffusion, El Correo, published on February 19 an interview with José María Zeberio, president of the World Rural Forum, for his appearance in the Spanish Senate.

Zeberio spoke of the “vocation” necessary to be dedicated to agriculture and the importance of having “public policies” that ensure basic conditions in rural areas.

He explained that Family Farming, and this includes artisanal fishermen, pastoralists and peasants, is distinguished because it is a family or several cooperatively united that assume the “responsibility” of exploitation.

He added that along with an improvement of the farms and livestock, the objective of small family farms is “to maintain a productive activity that progressively improves and is sustainable over time.”

The lack of young people with a desire to engage in family farming, inequalities between women and men, unfavourable conditions from the point of view of infrastructures and services in rural areas or low prices of food in a current culture that minimizes food expenses are some of the challenges and problems pointed out by Zeberio.

In the VI Conference, we want to specify measures for the Decade of Family Farming from an open and inclusive dialogue

Every day we have to sow. Every day we have to put a brick to build. Every day, we have to fertilize the land to collect the fruit; go out to graze to feed the cattle; or cast the nets to fish.

Although it does not hurt to look back and feel proud of what we have achieved. If you tell us, in 2008, that we were going to celebrate the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF 2014), to be part of the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations and to celebrate a Decade, we would not have believed it.

However, here we are. With the Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028) recently started and on the verge of celebrating the VI Global Conference of the WRF, which will take place in Bilbao, the last week of March.

We will be about 200 representatives of multiple entities that will give voice to millions of people. The World Rural Forum is a plural network. In the same way, the VI Conference will be an open and inclusive meeting. We will have relevant actors from governments, international organizations such as FAO and IFAD, farmers’ organizations, cooperatives, trade unions, National Committees of Family Farming, NGOs and research centers from all five continents.

We are interested in the participation of everyone. We want contributions to emerge that can be incorporated into the Decade Action Plan, whose official launch will take place in Rome in May. We also seek to “facilitate dialogue, new partnerships and the involvement of new entities in the Decade (…) to promote the implementation of the Decade Agenda”. This is reflected in the second objective set for the VI Conference.

A world population of 2,500 million is dedicated to Family Farming, which accounts for 40% of employment

In Euskadi, in Sweden, the Philippines, Australia, Paraguay and Madagascar, Family Farming is a planetary model just like our World Rural Forum is global and the VI Conference is Global.

Each country and each region has its uniqueness, but family farms are an extended model.

The defining aspect to talk about this reality is that there is a family linked to an agrarian farm.

And that it is the members of this family who contribute the labor – totally or partially – and make the decisions.

The figures often give us the measure of things, their relevance.

In the case of Family Farming, 2.500 million people are engaged in this activity[1], which means the employment of 40% of the world population[2].

The Decade of Family Farming that we have just entered is a period declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations, where 193 countries are represented.

And Family Farming is part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, being the “Zero Hunger” the SDG number 2 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN.

If the figures serve to clarify terms, it is also important to highlight that 200 representatives from all five continents will participate in our VI Conference, which will take place in Bilbao -in the Hotel Seminario in Derio- between March 25 and 29.

And if the numbers are important, the program and the challenges that we have set for this conference are so.

The VI Conference will serve to draw the road map of the coming years, set objectives and provide, with an open and inclusive approach, content for the Agenda and the Action Plan of the Decade.

Everything in order to improve the lives of women and men family farmers. And, by extension, that of the rest of the society.

[1] SOFA, FAO, 2014

[2] ILO, 2013

The VI Global Conference is the prelude to the Decade’s Action Plan

Five days of work and debate.

200 participants from all over the planet; representatives of governments, international organizations such as FAO and IFAD, regional agrarian organizations, National Committees on Family Farming, NGOs, trade unions, cooperatives and research and training centres.

And an agenda full of content and challenges.

The VI Global Conference on Family Farming is near.

The installed clock continues its account. It marks, unappealable, the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining until March 25.

Consequently, now we have to be thoroughly involved and duplicate tasks. These are busy days.

We want everything to go well and this forces us to make the best effort.

In all areas: political, academic, administrative, organizational and communication.

We are sure that everything will turn out well.

In which context will the conference take place in Bilbao?

We come from having celebrated, in 2014, the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) and we just, this month of January, raised the curtain of the Decade declared by the UN, which will occupy the period 2019 – 2028.

We are facing a great opportunity to achieve two great goals that we have always pursued: social recognition and public policies that improve the lives of family farmers.

Society does not grant sufficient relevance to Family Farming because there is a lack of awareness of its economic and strategic value. It is not so perceived, but it is a social asset of first order. We are talking about food security and nutrition, zero hunger, employability and economy, sustainable development, climate change and heritage.

The VI Global Conference should be understood as a great opportunity. It is the prelude to the Decade and where we will plan the actions of the coming years.

This is reflected in the first of the objectives of our conference that we have noted down: “Contribute to the design of the official Decade Agenda for the national, regional and global levels by developing quality inputs for the Action Plan of the Decade of Family Farming”.

Only 62 days are left for the VI Global Conference and we face the appointment with enthusiasm

We encourage you to block your agenda. March 25th. Why? On that day, Monday, the VI Global Conference on Family Farming begins in Bilbao at the Hotel Seminario in Derio.

Don´t you know what Family Farming is? Don´t you know the World Rural Forum, whose headquarters are in a small village, Arkaute, in the Basque Country? Are you not interested?

What if we talk about the involvement of the United Nations, FAO and IFAD? What if we talk about nutrition and food security, that is, to eradicate hunger in the world?

As stated in the UN General Assembly’s Resolution of the declaration of the Decade of Family Farming, 815 million people throughout the world still suffer from hunger and 80 % of the extreme poor live in rural areas and work in agriculture.

What if we talk about economy and employment? About sustainable development? About SDGs or UN global objectives? About climate change? About cultural heritage? About land conservation?

Family Farming produces 80% of the food and supports 40% of the jobs on the planet.

There will be place to discuss in this section about the path travelled; the milestones achieved; the success obtained; the institutions and organizations involved; and about our next horizon, drawn within the framework of the Decade declared by the UN.

For the moment, remember that the Basque Country, Euskadi – land of Family Farming and “baserri” – will host, in the last week of March, an event of vital importance for all. For the 31 million people represented by the WRF specially, and for the society as a whole.

Today, 62 days are left for the start of the VI Global Conference.

The hours, minutes and seconds also run inexorably. We want you to keep in mind the time remaining for the event and, therefore, we have included a digital counter on the cover of our website.

Join us, involve yourself, count the days with us

We will be waiting for you.

Within the context of building a Collective Action, representatives of family farming organisations, universities and research centres, the European Union and the German Ministry of Agriculture, actively participated in a workshop co-organised by the WRF and GFAR

Tuesday, 10 April.- Regional Family Farming organisations from Africa (PROPAC), America (COPROFAM), Asia (AFA) and the Pacific Islands (PIFON), together with a national organisation from Senegal (CNCR), shared and discussed the conceptualisation and process of Participatory Agricultural Research. One of the organisations’ main demands was the need to highlight the importance of carrying out Participatory Research based on the needs of Family Farming itself, where the focus of the research is the subjects, that is, family farmers.

The WRF and other associated entities of GFAR (Global Forum for Agricultural Research), worked, on 20 and 21 February, on designing a Collective Action to allow family farmers to promote agricultural Research entitled “Improving participatory processes among farmers and family farmers, civil society/rural communities and research and innovation centres”. It should be noted that this initiative is driven by the WRF and COPROFAM, current members of the GFAR Steering Committee.

Representatives from family farming organisations such as AFA, Coprofam, PIFON, CNCR and Propac, universities and research centres such as Cirad, ISRA BAME and University of Louvain, as well as representatives of the European Union and the German Ministry of Agriculture, participated actively in this workshop co-organised by the WRF and GFAR.

The overall aim of the Collective Action is to contribute to transforming the current model of agricultural research governance to develop alternative systems of agricultural research and innovation in which governance is inclusive and allows the development of research and innovation processes in which the farmers and rural communities themselves are active, recognised and valued actors.

Family Farming Organisations stressed that Agricultural Research should promote models of sustainability in Family Farming, in the face of merely productivist views that do not value its social and environmental dimensions. It is necessary, therefore, to focus research and budgets on improving Family Farming, and for this it is important to influence the decision-making agendas and public research policies.

These seminars laid the foundations for a collaboration between the different agents through a working group around building a collective action, which seeks to be a learning space based on experience and promotion that generates changes in the governance of agricultural systems, recognises the knowledge of Family Farming and makes it possible, therefore, for family farmers to be the drivers in their own development.

PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH IN THE DECADE OF FAMILY FARMING

Participatory research is one of the three areas of work of the IYFF +10/Decade of Family Farming, and seeks to encourage and promote the link between the agricultural research sector and Family Farming organisations, which also includes the processes of social innovation.

Family Farming needs research to improve the way of life for family farmers, just as research needs farmers in order to carry out its work. Family Farming must maintain its identity at the same time as innovating, and adapt with the aim of increasing sustainability and the well-being of the families involved.

The Participatory Research line of work of the IYFF +10/Decade of Family Farming is, therefore, a tool to ensure that agricultural research focuses mainly on developing Family Farming, offering tools from a broader approach and with a integrative vision based on the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. It will also help research centres develop their work with a better connection to family farming organisations.

The effective connection can be produced by encouraging regular meetings between the two sectors and joint participation in events, co-development of research projects, knowledge exchange, among many other activities.

More information:

• PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH: CONNECTING FAMILY FARMING ORGANISATIONS AND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTRES 
• Together is Better – Designing a Collective Action to make research Participatory and Accountable https://blog.gfar.net/2018/02/28/together-is-better-designing-a-collective-action-to-make-research-participatory-and-accountable/

Currently, 37 National Committees of Family Farming (NCFF) are actively working on political advocacy in their countries

26th of March, 2018 – In 2017, the network of National Committees for Family Farming expanded with the incorporation of new countries like Fiji, Macedonia, and Chad, while in Japan and Cameroon important efforts were made in the establishment of platforms for political dialogue in favor of Family Farming. Throughout the year the NCFFs continued to be a fundamental pillar for the improvement of public policies in support of Family Farming, not only addressing a new generation of policies, but also monitoring and implementing changes in existing policies.

In Fiji, the NCFF was established in August 2017 with the Farmer’s Forum and a “Farmer to Farmer” exchange of experiences. Prior to this event, PIFON (Pacific Island Farmers Organization Network) had already consulted with Family Farming organizations in order to understand their ideas and concerns, thereby identifying a series of key questions for the proposal of public policies, among others.

The NCFF in Macedonia was officially created in June 2017 when its first General Assembly was held. During this assembly, in which more than 20 participants from various organizations were present, research on the current state of Family Farming in the country was presented. The study recognized the importance of Family Farming in Macedonia and its rural areas. Taking into account its small surface area and population, it concludes that 99.8% of businesses registered are related to Family Farming.

In the case of Chad the NCFF is conducting a study on the state of Family Farming in the country as a basis for the development of policy proposals and dialogues with government agencies. The NCFF created its Steering Committee in September, composed of 7 organizations (NGOs and Agricultural Organizations), and drafted a plan of action 2017-2018 following the official launch meeting in September. It should be noted that the NCFF organized an information and outreach campaign about the importance and challenges of Family Farming in the country. Through radio programming it has successfully increased public interest in the work of the NCFF. Currently the NCFF is composed of 51 organizations.

In Cameroon, a group of 6 agricultural and rural development organizations is advocating the creation of a platform for Family Farming in Cameroon (PPAFAM-CAM). In order to do so they have devised a work plan and have held meetings with the objective of involving the principle agents of Family Farming in the country (agricultural organizations, civil society organizations, research centers, and various government entities). It achieved a positive reception and soon a national workshop will be held for the launch of the platform as a National Committee for Family Farming.

In Japan, the platform (under the name Small Family Farming Network of Japan SFFNJ) was established in June 2017 and is composed of 3 organizations of which 2 are Family Farming organizations and 1 is an NGO. The main objective of the platform is based in the requirement of national agricultural policies centered on family farming, the discussion of information concerning small family farming in the country, and the Decade of Family Farming itself.

In addition, efforts are being made to support the establishment of new NCFFs in other countries and regions like China, Central Asia, and the Balkans and contact has been resumed in the hopes of  possibly reviving the NCFFs in the US and Canada.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NCFFS IN 2017

It’s important to note that the NCFFs are achieving significant advances in being recognized by governments as key interlocutors in the process of policy formation. In many cases the NCFFs, in coordination with authorities, actively participate and consult with Family Farming organizations and other interested agents at the regional and national level.

Such is the case with the NCFF in Paraguay, which successfully enacted the National Family and Peasant Farming Emergency Law,  is working on the creation of municipal ordinances on Family and Peasant Farming, and actively participates in REAF; NCFF Dominican Republic is working on the creation of a National Program for Family Farming; NCFF Indonesia is drafting provincial legislation on the law of agricultural protection and empowerment; Philippines , where the NCFF came to an agreement with the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) for the drafting of a National Development plan for the Coconut Industry with the participation of the leading Family Farming organizations;  Senegal, where the NCFF coordinates the consulting process for the creation of the National Agriculture Plan; and Burkina Faso, with the active participation of the NCFF, has drafted the second phase of the National Rural Development Program.

Other significant advances in 2017 were:

In Slovakia, as a result of efforts made by the NCFF, the constitution was amended in areas referring to the land. This constitutional amendment aims to halt speculative land purchases. At the moment, further steps are being taken to develop specific laws and directives concerning the allocation of subsidies, registration of lease agreements, land use rights, and inheritance, among others.

In Uganda, farmers successfully kept the proposed bill on GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), Biotechnology, and Bio-security (2012) from becoming the law.

In Colombia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved the policy guidelines for the development of Family Farming.

THE ROLE OF THE NCFFS IN THE DECADE FOR FAMILY FARMING 2019-2028

The NCFFs actively contributed to the campaign for the declaration of the Decade of Family Farming. They encouraged their governments to support the declaration in the United Nations General Assembly and they are also providing input on the upcoming Plan of Action for the Decade.

In fact, the very document of the Declaration of the Decade, recognizes the important role that National Committees of Family Farming-NCFF played in the IYFF-2014, extending to the Decade as well.

With this recognition they will certainly have a more favorable environment in which to achieve better results in the improvement of public policies supporting Family Farming in their countries. Therefore, the IYFF+10/Decade of Family Farming 2019-2028 will seek to strengthen and advocate for the NCFFs present on the 5 continents.