AsiaDHRRA Online

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 in [...]

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 [...]

Thailand has traditionally been a major exporter of rice and other major agricultural products such as sugarcane. As much as two-thirds of the country’s population live in the rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihood. However, agriculture accounts for a mere 10 per cent of Thailand’s gross domestic product (GDP), well behind the [...]

API or Aliansi Petani Indonesia has a new website up and running at http://api-indonesia.blogspot.com/ The multilingual website offers indonesian and english language versions and showcases the latest news, updates and activities of Indonesia’s largest farmer’s group.

Quezon City, Philippines — As a non-violent way of protesting the more than 10 years of injustice they have gone through in trying to reclaim their ancestral land, 50 “lumad” farmers belonging to the Mapalad Multi-purpose Cooperative (MPC) will march on foot from their hometown of Sumilao, Bukidnon in the south to the capital city [...]

The Executive Committee of AFA decided to put up its own secretariat office in Manila last July 23, 2007. The decision marked the end of a process of autonomy which began in 2002, facilitated by its NGO partner and catalyst, AsiaDHRRA. It signalled the readiness of AFA leaders to take on bigger responsibilities in organizational [...]

Consumer activism in Japan emerged in the wake of the devastation of the Second World War. Ironically, it was the American Occupation forces in Japan that had paved the way for the development of such a movement. They encouraged ordinary Japanese to form groups in support of political causes, viewing even radical forms of citizen [...]

AsiaDHRRA, in cooperation with AFA, PAKISAMA and PhilDHRRA will assist in facilitating the “Regional Consultation Workshop on Farmers’ Situation: Responding to Major Difficulties Faced by Farmers in Asia” on June 12-15, 2007 at the SEAMEO INNOTECH Center in Commonwealth Avenue, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines. The consultation-workshop aims to facilitate the (1) [...]

As part of the continuing advocacy of AsiaDHRRA towards promotion of fair agricultural trade, a delegation was sent, together with the AFA Chairperson, to actively participate in the CSO Strategy Meeting on G33 which ran parallel to the meeting of G33 officials in Jakarta from March 20-21. The CSO parallel meeting was organized by the [...]

Alongside its aim of sustaining the orientation and demystification process of its partners about ASEAN, AsiaDHRRA, together with the Asian Farmers Association (AFA), helped arrange a dialogue between farmer leaders and their NGO partners with the ASEAN Secretary General H.E. Ong Keng Yong. The dialogue concluded the two-day regional workshop of AFA entitled: Firming up [...]

This paper presents AsiaDHRRA and AFA’s comments on the World Development Report (WDR). This was a response to the WDR 2008 consultation process. download the paper here….

AFA and AsiaDHRRA’s new book, entitled “Initiatives on Pro Small Farmer Trade”, was launched during the panel session on ASEAN regional integration in agriculture. The book contains 5 case studies portraying actual initiatives in alternative agricultural trading: (1) the successful efforts of Green Net in Thailand to market organic products; (2) the initiative by the [...]

A joint meeting of the AFA and AsiaDHRRA ExeCom took place on Dec. 14, 2006 in Cebu City, Philippines to discuss the results of the external evaluation done by Ms. Dinky Soliman on the progress of AFA’s preparation towards full operational autonomy. A joint task force was created during the meeting to oversee the process [...]

AFA represented by Tri Heru Wardoyo, Esther Penunia and AsiaDHRRA represented by Marlene Ramirez participated in the recently concluded First Farmers’ Forum in conjunction with IFAD’s 29th General council Meeting held from 13-16 February 2006 at Palazzo dei Congressi, Rome, Italy. Around 55 representatives of farmers’ organizations from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, [...]