Prem Dungal, General Secretary, ANPFa in Inagural Session
agrarian reform immediately in South Asian Countries to enable the poor peasants to have effective access and control over land, water and other productive and natural resources.
The members from citizen groups, social movements, peasant organizations, labour unions, fishers folks organizations, women’s groups and civil society organizations and human rights organisations from different South Asian Countries gathered at a workshop in Dhaka on 23-25 September 2008 to share their own experiences and struggles to achieve sustainable agriculture for food sovereignty within South Asia. In this regards, the participants vows for National Agricultural Policy from IFIs, TNCs and MNCs control.
The workshop organized by Sushasoner Jonny Procharavizan – SUPRO, the Country Thematic Focal Orgaision (CTFO) of Food Sovereignty, Livelihood and Employment theme of South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE).
On 23 September 2008, the workshop began through organizing a inauguration session where Rekeya Kabir, Core Committee Member of SAAPE and Executive Director of Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS) chaired,
Abdul Awal, Chairperson, SUPRO
Abdul Awal, Chairperson of SUPRO devlivered welcome speech and Prem Dungal, General Secretary of All Nepal Peasants Federation (ANPFa) highlighted global context of food sovereignty and peasants movement as Coordinator of Food Soveringty, Livelihood and Employment Theme of SAAPE. Dr. Assaduzzan, Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dr. Abdur Razzaque, Ex-Chairman of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) and Dr. Nur A Khandokar, Research Grants Administrator of FAO spoke as guest speakers while Farmers Union Leaders Morshed Ali, President of Krishok Samity and Badrul Alam delivered Bangladesh context of farmers movements and Ujjani Halim from IMSE, India; Qamar-Mohy-Ud-Din from Lok Sanjh, Pakistan; W F Priyankara Costa from NAFOS, Sri Lanka and Mohan Tamang from Democratic Youth of Bhutan spoke at the session.
The speakers at the inauguration session underscored the need for formulating a regional agriculture
policy through better understanding to address the food crisis threat in a coordinated efforts. They also said, population of South Asian countries including Bangladesh has gradually been increasing with continued decrease of agricultural lands which leads to losing soil fertility.
They said, South Asian Countries have recently been experiencing increased vulnerability in terms of livelihood and property, while growers are loosing their sovereignty in agriculture due to intervene the modern technology as an advise of IFIs like World Bank and ADB to hand
Dr. M Asaduzzaman, Research Director, BIDS
over the total control of agricultural inputs to the multi-national companies. The speakers also said that the government has raised their voice on behalf of farmers, but they have taken anti-farmers policy as prescription of IFIs.
After the inauguration, the participants discussed on diffirent issues related to sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty like the basic concepts of sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty, global
movements on food sovereignty, global food crisis and sustainable agriculture, farmers movements, campaign & struggles within countries and global level in the next two days.
On 25 September 2008, in a concluding session, the participants adopted a 10 points declaration as bellow:
An outcome from the workshop organized by SAAPE & SUPRO
Dhaka, Bangladesh
23-25, September 2008
We, the members of social movements, peasant organizations, labour unions, fishers folks organizations, women’s groups and civil society organizations and human rights organisations from different SAARC countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri Lanka) have gathered here in Dhaka
We have observed with great concern that the poverty is intensifying in South Asia and small and marginal peasants, sharecroppers, agricultural labourers, poor workers in the informal sectors, women in particular are becoming the worst victims of hunger and malnutrition. We have further found that poor peasants have little access to productive and natural resources like land, water, forests, seeds and other means of production to practice agriculture in a sustainable way in order to ensure their livelihoods.
The food and agricultural policies, as adopted by the nation states in this region, are based on neo-liberal principles and are promoted by IFIs (WB, IMF, ADB etc) and MNCs, which have intensified food crisis and have increased environmental catastrophes. The nation-states have failed to mainstream the principles of food sovereignty in policies and programmes to ensure right to food and livelihoods of people. Particularly non implementation of genuine agrarian reform and reforms in other sectors have affected the vulnerable groups like, poor peasants, peasant-women, fisher folk, Dalits and Tribal communities most. This discrimination is rooted in structural inequity existing in our society for generations and is further intensified in the era of neo-liberalisation.
We have further observed with great concern that agro-fuel has been promoted through government policies, supported by WB & IMF, ostensibly to overcome fuel crisis and to address climate change threats. However, in reality agro-fuel expansion is only increasing the profits of the multinationals at the cost of food security of millions of poor in our countries.
Sustainable agriculture practices have been systematically discouraged and traditional knowledge and practices have been dismantled in the name of modernization of agriculture and increase in food production. Land alienation of poor, displacements and loss of livelihoods have emerged as big issues of concerns in the region. In this context we have also noted the decision of the SAARC states to create the ‘food bank’ in the region to address the food crisis.
We strongly feel that creating the ‘food bank’ alone will not resolve the present food crisis. In order to address the food crisis adequately, fundamental structural and political changes are needed at national/regional levels. With this collective understanding we urge our governments to take the following measures:
1. The nation states in South Asia should implement genuine agrarian reform immediately to enable the poor peasants to have effective access and control over land, water and other productive and natural resources.
2. The state policies should ensure that poor peasants do not become victims of land alienations and displacements due to unproductive usages of land, privatsation and commercialization process in agriculture.
3. Adequate and effective policies should be adopted to protect and preserve biodiversity of the region and to promote traditional knowledge and practices in agriculture. The nation states have the obligation to ensure peasants access to traditional seeds. Sustainable agriculture practices should be encouraged through researches, documentations and financial support from the state.
4.The state policies should support small and marginal peasants from unfair open market competitions by providing support and subsidies in agriculture inputs, especially by creating public institutions and by ensuring appropriate price of the agriculture products.
6. As WTO negotiations have undermined food sovereignty of the people in our region, we strongly urge our governments to support the civil society position “WTO out of Agriculture”
7. While we appreciate the steps taken by most of our governments to introduce/reinforce public distribution system and employment guarantee schemes to meet with the present food crisis challenge, but we strongly feel that these efforts have to be inclusive with a focus on most vulnerable communities and should be implemented in a transparent and accountable manner at grassroots.
8. We urge the governments to take side with the agreement under Kyoto/UNFCCC frameworks which has underlined policies for compensation from Annex 1 / developed countries and also the deep cut in emission by developed countries which is 20%-40% by 2020 from the level of 1990.
9. We also urge the governments in our countries to oppose the conspiracies of G 8 countries and IFIs which undermining the UNFCCC framework and funding through GEF for climate justice. We further urge the government of Bangladesh in particular and all other governments of this region to oppose UK intention to invite World Bank to manage multi donor trust fund for Bangladesh
10. Finally we congratulate the people and the government of Nepal for making food sovereignty a fundamental right in their new interim Constitution. At the same time we urge all other governments in our region to acknowledge ‘Food sovereignty’ as a fundamental right of people to be enshrined in the constitutions of the respective countries.
Above all we believe that a democratic governance system is imperative to provide space to all actors in the society, especially poor actors like peasants, women, labourers, fisher folk in the informal sectors, Dalits, tribal communities in raising their voices and in asserting their legitimate rights. We feel that genuine political will is a precondition to create the above conducive environment so the peasants’ rights have been fully realized.
We the participants of this workshop reaffirm our position against neo-liberal policies and commit ourselves to create social movements for promotion of food sovereignty and for ensuring sustainable agriculture in the region.
Papers and Presentations:
Green Revolution in Bangladesh and Its Consequences: Importance of Sustainable Agricultural Practices, Tapan Kumar Chakraborty, Programme Coordinator, NRDS, Noakhali III Presentation
