On a related note, Asiadhrra Execom met with AgriCord Managing Director Mr. Ignace Coussement, in Hanoi in March 2012 where they had a fruitful exchange of views on this new partnership.

AgriCord is a network of “agri-agencies”, non-governmental organisations for development cooperation with structural links to the farmers’ and rural members’ organisations in their home countries, including the organisations of rural women, young agrarians, cooperatives and agri-businesses.

Visit the Agricord Website…

Last Saturday, 2nd July 2011, the plenary of the 37th FAO Conference ratified the Resolution introduced by the Philippino delegation (see attached text),   supported by more than 15 countries, without any opposition, requesting  UN General Assembly  to declare in 2011 the International Year of Family Farming-IYFF, to be implemented during 2014.

The IYFF World Consultative Committee and the World Rural Forum, presents in Rome, were allowed to express gratitude to the FAO Conference after the approval of the IYFF Resolution.

During the process towards the final approval of the Resolution, several Ambassadors informed us that the worldwide dimension of the IYFF Campaing, with supporters in the 5 continents, were essential factors in favour of obtaining a general consensus.

In this respect, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to each and every organization, entity, government, person, adhered to the Campaign, as we are enjoying a collective success.

We have now to confront the great challenge of going deeper into the many crucial issues and aspirations of the hundreds of millions of women and men farmers, at national and world levels, in order to make  the 2014 IYFF a great milestone in solving problems, finding solutions to the rural people, the real leaders, the true inspiration of our common Campaign.

Draft resolution subbmited by Philippines (see page 5)

The three workshops will be held from  09:00AM – 6:30PM at the Hotel Ciputra, Jakarta, Indonesia.

The 3 workshops are:

1. Agriculture and the Peasantry in ASEAN: Challenges and Way Forward (9:00AM – 12:30PM)
2. CSO Engagement with the ASEAN (12:30PM – 3:00PM)
3. Food Price Volatility and Food Reserves in ASEAN  (3:00PM – 6:30PM)

The workshop on Agriculture and the Peasantry in ASEAN: Challenges and Way Forward (co-organized by Asiadhrra with API, SPI, SP, BINA DESA, AFA, APNFS, LRAN) will discuss the challenges facing agriculture and peasantry in the ASEAN Region in the context of food sovereignty and land reform.

Download the Agriculture in ASEAN workshop program here…

OUR STAND

In the last five years, manifold crises have afflicted the world. The financial crisis caused the closure of banks and many financial institutions. The food crisis resulted from the destruction of food systems through neo-liberal reforms in poor countries. Food prices remain high, and now, 1 billion people are hungry and malnourished with more than 700 million found in Asia. A climate crisis is upon us due to  unsustainable industrial and agricultural policies.

These crises are fundamentally linked to neo-liberal globalization triggered by oligopolistic capitalism. This is an intensification of cyclical forms of recession due to unsustainable development, chemical intensive agriculture, overproduction, and global speculative markets. In Asia’s rural areas, these policies and processes are destroying our food sovereignty, poisoning our land, common property and natural resources and driving small food producers to bankruptcy and loss of their land and livelihoods. The hardest hit and most vulnerable are developing countries that became net importers of food.

continue reading the full statement here…

click to download the statement….

The CSO Statement was born out of a very challenging process, given the diversity of perspectives, experiences and nature of CSOs who participated in the CSO Side Event to the Investment Forum  for Food Security.  CSO signatories to the Statement are indicated in the document.

Investments for Food Security in Asia-Pacific: For Whom and For What? – CSO Statement – CSO Side Event, APRC Program

We, representatives from national and regional organizations and cooperatives of small scale women and men farmers, fishers, and indigenous peoples, rural youth and women, and development NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region, wish to present to the delegates of this investment forum organized jointly by Asian Development Bank (ADB), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) the following:

Away from “Business as Usual” Approach
Partnerships and investments to promote food security in the Asia-Pacific region cannot proceed in the “business-as-usual” approach. Our work and study with poor communities consistently show that large scale trade, technology and business practices of large agro-industrial corporations have marginalized and further displaced small holder producers, who lost their access to and control over productive resources and assets.

National and regional policies, particularly in financing and trade, have reinforced these failures and continuing food insecurity in many countries.

Click here to read or download the full statement…..

We’re a bit proud to say that we had a little hand in the production as WRF entrusted us with the design and layout of the booklet.

Download it now!

Learn more about the Campaign for the International Year of Family Farming

ASEAN Secretariat, 17 May 2010

The cost of doing business in ASEAN will be lower and trade-related transactions simpler as the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), one of the region’s landmark economic agreements, entered into force today.

The ATIGA, which is comprehensive in its scope and brings transparency to regional trade liberalisation, consolidates all commitments related to trade in goods. It focuses on not only tariff liberalisation and non-tariff measures, but it also includes matters related to simplification of rules of origin and its implementation. Various agencies and regulatory bodies dealing with entry of goods, such as the Customs, and health and agricultural authorities, will jointly operate in ensuring smoother operations at the Customs entry points.

“The ATIGA is a major achievement towards the establishment of a single market and production base under the ASEAN Economic Community 2015,” said the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan. The entry into force of the ATIGA will help facilitate trade by simplifying processes and procedures thereby reducing transaction time and cost of doing business hence benefitting the business community and the public, he said upon the deposit of Thailand’s instrument of ratification with his office in Jakarta. All ASEAN Member States have now ratified the ATIGA.

The ATIGA contains the full import duty liberalisation schedule among ASEAN Member States and spells out the tariff rates to be applied on products. This provides businesses with transparency and certainty in making business and investment decisions. Dr Surin also urged the ASEAN Member States to implement the ATIGA through timely incorporation of the ATIGA commitments into domestic legislation to meet the agreed tariff reduction schedules.

With the coming into force of ATIGA, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will issue their legal enactments in 90 days, while Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam will do so in 180 days. Thereafter, tariff liberalisation commitments under the ATIGA will be implemented retroactively from 1 January 2010.