SEARICE bats for farmers’ rights a

SEARICE bats for farmers’ rights as bedrock of sustainable agriculture and food security at FAO high-level forum

ROME, 15 July 2023--“Agricultural biodiversity is central to the sustainability of agriculture and food systems. The less biodiversity we have in our agriculture and food systems, the more we are vulnerable to environmental shocks including climate change,” said SEARICE executive director Normita Ignacio at “Connecting the Dots: Biodiversity, Food & Agriculture,” which was held to mark the 40th year anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Commission).

Established in 1983, the Commission is the only permanent intergovernmental body that specifically addresses all biodiversity for food and agriculture. The Commission offers a unique platform for its Members and other stakeholders, promoting a world without hunger by fostering the use and development of the whole portfolio of biodiversity important to food security and rural poverty.

Ignacio discussed Community-based conservation, development and sustainable use of biodiversity for food and agriculture in her intervention at the event which was top billed by FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo, Yasmina El Bahloul, Chairperson of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) Governing Body, and David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity, among others.

Ignacio said, “Agricultural biodiversity is the backbone of all food production worldwide, and it is the smallholder men and women farmers across the world who have historically been the stewards of agricultural biodiversity since the dawn of agriculture. The empowerment of smallholder men and women farmers is the key to sustaining agricultural biodiversity for present and future generations.”

For over 45 years, SEARICE has been partnering with smallholder farmers in at least five countries in Southeast Asia through governments, CSOs, and schools to implement agroecology with special emphasis on the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and smallholder farmer participation in plant breeding, and in implementing farmers’ rights.

SEARICE promotes rights-based and ecosystems-based approaches. It uses Farmer Field Schools (FFS) as a learning methodology and as an empowering tool, through which farmers become critically aware of their rights, develop their analytical skills and able to make decisions for their own development.

“Farmers’ rights and biodiversity conservation are so intimately intertwined and interrelated that one cannot exist without the other,” explained Ignacio. “Hence, food and agriculture policies should reflect the interrelation between farmers’ rights and biodiversity conservation. Policy makers should always strive for balance that would ensure that biodiversity is conserved and farmers’ rights are upheld.”

Ignacio issued the following recommendations:

Policies need to veer away from market-based approaches to development. Small farmers should not be perceived as markets but as partners in development.
A rights-based approach was adopted in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We need to incorporate this rights-based approach in the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity, especially those involving smallholder farmers. In consonance thereto, states have the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill farmers rights as listed in UNDROP, with particular attention to farmers rights to seeds.
Agrochemical corporations, food processing companies, and all other corporations engaged in food production should be guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. They should adopt and implement policies that implement farmers rights; conduct due diligence activities that ensure the conservation and critical sustainability of agricultural biodiversity; and be held liable for biodiversity loss. These corporations should also be mandated to conduct concrete steps to stop agricultural biodiversity loss and implement farmers rights.
Once farmers’ rights are implemented, it is not only the smallholders who benefit, but all of humanity does, because everyone’s right to food and to healthy and sustainable environments is also fulfilled.

“Connecting the dots: Biodiversity, Food and Agriculture” was a special event held before the start of the Nineteenth Regular Session of the Commission this year. The official session will take place on 17 to 21 July 2023.

The Commission, at each meeting, reviews the state of the world’s genetic resources and considers activities necessary for their conservation, sustainable use and development. The Commission keeps under continuous review all matters relating to the policy, programmes and activities in the area of genetic resources of relevance to food and agriculture and advises governments and FAO’s governing bodies. Over 350 delegates and observers are expected to attend this session and make some critical decisions that will guide the future work of the Commission. Read more

The full text of Ignacio’s intervention follows:

The Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment is a non-government organization based in the Philippines.

SEARICE, for more than forty- five years now, have been partnering with smallholder farmers in at least five countries in Southeast Asia through governments, CSOs, and schools to implement agroecology with special emphasis on the conservation of agricultural biodiversity and smallholder farmer participation in plant breeding, and in implementing farmers’ rights.

Agricultural biodiversity is the backbone of all food production worldwide, and it is the smallholder men and women farmers across the world who have historically been the stewards of agricultural biodiversity since the dawn of agriculture. SEARICE believes that the empowerment of smallholder men and women farmers is the key to sustaining agricultural biodiversity for present and future generations. The farmers’ food systems being based on specific needs of farming households and directly linked with their culture and tradition, contribute significantly to the conservation of biodiversity.

SEARICE resorts to rights-based and ecosystems-based approaches and utilizes the FFS not only as a learning methodology but as an empowering tool, wherein farmers become critically aware of their rights, develop their analytical skills and are able to make decisions for their own development.

Linked to the FFS are our community seed banks that serve as back up storage for traditional varieties in the communities and farmer-developed varieties. Small farmers combine their traditional knowledge and lessons from the FFS and material from the community seed banks to regularly experiment with seeds and using them as parent materials for their crop breeding activities to produce their preferred varieties. In choosing these preferred varieties, farmers not only consider marketability of products but also qualities such as environmental and health impact, suitability for cultural reasons, additional benefits from the plants such as rice straw for cattle fodder, or fertilizers, and such other factors to suit their needs.

These efforts have led to the recognition of farmer breeders and farmer’ varieties that are adaptable to local conditions, varieties that can best meet their needs, and varieties that are resilient to shifting climatic changes and economic trends.

Agricultural biodiversity is central to the sustainability of agriculture and food systems. The less biodiversity we have in our agriculture and food systems, the more we are vulnerable to environmental shocks including climate change. However, prevailing policies, development paradigms, “success” stories, and development programs are catered towards a single goal, that is market and economic sustainability at the expense of the people’s environment and health.

There is a huge disconnect between our recognition of the importance of agricultural biodiversity and how we develop policies and implement programs that contribute to biodiversity loss; between how we profess our support to farmers and the way we exclude them in discussions and decision-making processes.

Environmental degradation, the extinction of flora and fauna, the drive towards unsustainable means of extracting natural resources of the earth came about with the invisibility of farmers and the violation of farmers rights.

Given the important role of farmers in biodiversity conservation and development & the adaptation pressures posed on them & our food supply by climate change, the costs to society of limiting farmers’ ability to continuously conserve, develop and use biodiversity would be devastating.

Any food security programs and policies that focused only on sustaining market forces, increasing food production through anthropocentric and technocentric means -- are not only counterproductive but may even result to growth of inequality in rural areas and failure to address the root cause of food insecurity and poverty.

The fulfillment of farmers rights as an adjunct of their individual and collective human rights is necessary to eradicate poverty among farmers and allow them to continuously conserve and develop biodiversity.

Farmers’ rights and biodiversity conservation are so intimately intertwined and interrelated that one cannot exist without the other. Hence food and agriculture policies should be grounded on realities and recognition of the interrelation between these two. Policy makers should always strive for balance that would ensure that biodiversity is conserved and farmers’ rights are upheld.

I hope that this discussion will contribute to ensuring that farmers rights not only to seeds as provided for in Article 9 of the Plant Treaty but all their rights as enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, will be part of integrating the Human Rights Based Approach (as indicated in the KM-GBF), to the CBD, the ITPGRFA and the CGRFA discussions.

There is an urgent need for transformative change in valuing biodiversity and recognizing the important nexus between and among biodiversity, healthy ecosystem, sustainable food systems, and farmers’ rights so that the needs of present and future generations can be sustained.

Recommendations:

Policies need to veer away from market-based approaches to development. Small farmers should not be perceived as markets but as partners in development.
A rights-based approach was adopted in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. We need to incorporate this rights-based approach in the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity, especially those involving smallholder farmers. In consonance thereto, states have the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill farmers rights as listed in UNDROP, with particular attention to farmers rights to seeds.
Agrochemical corporations, food processing companies, and all other corporations engaged in food production should be guided by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – they should adopt and implement policies that implement farmers rights; conduct due diligence activities that ensure the conservation and critical sustainability of agricultural biodiversity; and be held liable for biodiversity loss. These corporations should also be mandated to conduct concrete steps to stop agricultural biodiversity loss and implement farmers rights.
Once farmers rights are implemented, it is not only the smallholders who benefit, the whole of humanity benefits since everyone’s right to food; and their right to healthy and sustainable environments are also fulfilled.

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