AsiaDHRRA Online

In the recently concluded 4th AFA General Assembly last April 23 in Ping Tung, Taiwan, the new officers of the Executive Committee for 2010-2015 were sworn into office.
The new leaders of AFA are as follows:
Chairperson – Mr. Tsai, Shun-Te, TWADA (Taiwan)
Vice-Chairperson – Ms. Jang, Jeong-Ok, WAFF (South Korea)
Treasurer (appointed) – Mr. Vicente Fabe, [...]

Renato Penas, Vice-President of PAKISAMA, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at 11:00 PM yesterday, on the way to his farm in Sumilao, Bukidnon.
He was 51.
His 2 companions are in the hospital nursing gunshot wounds.
It was a high price to pay for selflessly dedicating himself to the agrarian reform movement.
He is one of the most [...]

ASEAN is home to 540 million people . Substantial percentages of land resources in many countries in ASEAN are devoted to agricultural production. Agriculture is still an important source of income and livelihood in many ASEAN countries. Yet , the poorest people in ASEAN, or those who live below $1 or even $2 dollars a [...]

We mourn the death of Ka Vic Paglinawan, a model farmer leader from Mindanao, who also touched our lives in the region for his active participation in the regional activities hosted by AFA and AsiaDHRRA in the past years. During those times, Ka Vic Paglinawan represented PAKISAMA as its National Chairperson.
We fondly remember Ka Vic’s [...]

By Kang, Min Su, AFA

The Korean Advanced Farmers Federation’s (KAFF) commemoration of Lee Kyung Hae’s 5th death anniversary ended successfully.
The commemoration was organized in order to remember the farmer-leader’s sacrifice. Special rites were held before Lee Kyung Hae’s grave in his hometown.
Through these events, KAFF hopes that the public will remember Lee Kyung Hae’s sacrifices [...]

The issue of Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SP/SSM) is a key issue in the current Doha Round of negotiations. The SP/SSM seems to be one of few issues that developing countries are quite strong on, and that the US is strongly opposed to, meaning that if the developing countries (G33) stay strong in [...]

This monograph presents the highlights of the farmers’ exchange visits (FEVs) in Indonesia and Japan, conducted by AFA, in cooperation with AsiaDHRRA. It also contains the highlights of the field visits held during regional consultations in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. All of these FEVs and field visits occurred during the years 2006-2007.
Download the monograph [...]

In celebration of AFA day, members and partners participating in AFA’s Consultation-Workshop & 3rd AFA General Assembly last February 28 – March 3, 2008 in Sangnok Resort, Cheonan, South Korea, visited 2 farmer communities.
pics and stories here… 

The Indonesian Peasant Alliance is currently implementing an ICT capability building training for its member farmers;
Based on the endeavor to enhance farmers and their households’ capacity to access to information technology (IT), API in cooperation with Formasi Indonesia has been conducting Community Training Center (CTC) Program starting from August 2007. The objective of the program [...]

Following the 21st AFA Execom meeting in Bangkok, Thailand last December 22, 2007, AFA announced that it will hold its third general assembly in Korea on February 28 to March 3, 2008, to be hosted by the Korean Advanced Farmers’ Federation (KAFF).
February 28 will be the celebration of AFA Day with a field visit to [...]

Agricultural trade globalization under the present neo-liberal economic regime has disempowered and alienated farmers and producers from the rest of the commodity chain. Farmers find themselves out of the loop as soon as their produce leaves their farms. They have been reduced to being end-users of agricultural inputs produced by companies and as producers of [...]

In this era when disasters and calamities have become both more frequent and more intense, maintaining a national food reserve is a practical and forward-looking strategy for governments to adopt in order to ensure food security for the people and as a means to minimize the adverse impacts of unexpected events. Regional food reserves in [...]

The Fair Trade initiative was conceived more than 40 years ago as a response to concrete problems facing commodity producers. It is an alternative approach to conventional international trade dominated by big traders and in later years, by big agribusiness. It seeks to ensure that producers, the bulk of whom are poor and located [...]

by Mahar Mangahas | Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — Next week, some 55 farmers — 15 of them women — will reach Manila in a quest for social justice, after walking more than 1,600 kilometers from the town of Sumilao in the southern province of Bukidnon, starting last Oct. 10. They regularly walked about 30 [...]