Here’s great news straight from  José A. Osaba and our good friends at WRF. Thanks to all partners and friends and the Asiadhrra Network for actively participating in the IYFF campaign!

“We have got finally the good news that many of our organizations have been waiting for. Today, December 22nd 2011, at 4.55 pm, New York time, the UN General Assembly has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming-IYFF. Last October, the Permanent Mission of the Philippines  to the UN, introduced to the GA Second Committee a draft resolution about the IYFF declaration, co-sponsored afterwards  by many other countries and, eventually approved by consensus of all its members. We are extremely grateful to the Permanent Mission of the Philippines for its leadership and its commitment to the IYFF declaration procedure, and to all the countries that have co-sponsored the draft Resolution or given their final approval.

Thanks to the kidness of the Spanish Permanent Mission, I have been present during today´s GA plenary session in New York, keeping in mind with admiration during such historical moments, the more than 350 organizations from 60 countries that have been supporting the IYFF Campaign.

We have reached the main objective of our common Campaign in favour of the IYFF declaration,  started on February 2008, after the celebration of the II IFAD´s Farmers´s Forum in Rome.  For the first time in history, an International Year has been promoted by Civil Society. Many thanks to everybody!”

José A. Osaba

Both seminars were received support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the provincial government units of Hubei and Sichuan Provinces.

In both seminars, Florante “Nonoy” Villas, AsiaDHRRA’s LSFM regional program manager shared AsiaDHRRA’s experience in anchoring ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community’s participatory process in drafting the 2011-2015 Framework  Action Plan for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication and AsiaDHRRA’s strategies, models and experiences in implementing the Linking Small Farmers to Markets.

IPRCC is an international anti-poverty organization established jointly by the Chinese Government and the United Nations Development Program and other international organizations in June 2005. IPRCC has committed to make contributions to poverty reduction in the world through the promotion of policy research, experience-sharing, knowledge exchange and South-South Cooperation in the field of poverty reduction and development.

IPRCC was established by the Chinese Government to provide a platform for various professionals and development practitioners from different developing countries to share theoretic studies and policy analysis and explore effective approaches for agricultural growth and rural development. It is one of the 5 new measures to assume China’s international responsibilities announced by China’s president Hu Jintao at the High-Level Meeting on Financing for Development, on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations. On June 22, 2004, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a keynote speech titled Promote Asian Cooperation in New Century at the Third Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue held in Qingdao in which he pointed out that strengthening regional cooperation is not only an important part of China’s new-era foreign policy but also the need of its own development.

We, 200 women and men, leaders of national, regional and international farmers’ organizations, civil society groups and social movements, and key academic and research institutions, from four continents of the world –Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe-, as well as representatives from national governments and inter-governmental organizations, have gathered in Bilbao, Spain, for the Family Farming World Conference with the theme “Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth.”

Continue reading the IYFF declaration here….

Read more about the campaign towards an International Year of Family Farming in 2014…

The important workshop was co-organized by AFA and AsiaDHRRA, API and Binadesa/InDHRRA. Our speakers came from VNFU, APNFS, SPI, TKN, and ASETUC-UNI-APRO.

download the food price volatility plenary report here…

Download the PDF here….

Articles included:

• Diversity in international biosafety regulation: MacKenzie, R.
• From risks to rights in southern Africa:  Mohamed Katerere, J.
• Bt cotton: benefits for poor farmers?: Glover, D.
• IPRs, biotechnology and development: Yamin, F.
• Regulating biotechnology: Newell, P.
• Corporate dominance and agricultural biotechnology: Glover, D.
• The Chinese biotechnology experience: Keeley, J.
• Biotechnology for Kenya: Odame, H., Kameri-Mbote, P. and Wafula, D.

If, however, we look back over the past two decades, we can observe that except for the current downturn, hunger has been on the increase. Between the early 1990s and 2007, we had periods in which food prices were low and economic growth was strong, but hunger kept rising. What does this mean? It means that the improvement in the current hunger picture is only the result of the reversal of recent crisis effects. It also means that there is a fundamental structural problem with our food system that goes beyond temporary increases and decreases in food prices. That the food problem is rooted in poverty and radically unequal distributions of income and assets, within and across countries, which influence both food production systems and food consumption patterns.

continue reading…

Agriculture must produce more from less, and do so in an environmentally sustainable, efficient and socially just manner. The GIZ partnership farming approach provides a holistic and long-term sustainable solution, through investment in farm system management, capacitybuilding, production modernization and strengthened linkages between production and market demand.

This four-day event offers a unique opportunity to those seeking to improve the performance of their organizations in promoting and assisting in the development of smallholder farming. Participants will gain insight from experienced GIZ experts from across South and Southeast Asia and will benefit from avaluable exchange of experiences through the joint resolution of participants’ unique challenges.

Click to download the program and registration form….

For more information and registration, please visit their website: www.thai-german-cooperation.info/giz_trainings_agribusiness.html

Click to download/read the pdf…

“Potentially catastrophic” impacts on food production from slow-onset climate changes are expected to increasingly hit the developing world in the future and action is needed now to prepare for those anticipated impacts, FAO warned today in a submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“Currently the world is focused on dealing with shorter-term climate impacts caused mainly by extreme weather events,” said Alexander Müller, FAO Assistant-Director General for Natural Resources.

“This is absolutely necessary,” he continued. “But ‘slow-onset’ impacts are expected to bring deeper changes that challenge the ecosystem services needed for agriculture, with potentially disastrous impacts on food security during the period from 2050 to 2100. Coping with long-term changes after the fact doesn’t make much sense. We must already today support agriculture in the developing world to become more resilient,” he said.

continue reading about the Potentially catastrophic climate impacts on food production over the long-term…..

Ms. Miren Larrea, WRF Program Officer had a short visit at the AsiaDHRRA office on March 21, 2011 to update the secretariat on the recent activities  and news about the IYFF campaign. AFA secretariat and Pakisama also joined the lively sharing.

Visit the IYFF website at www.familyfarmingcampaign.net for the latest news on the campaign