On November 25-26, 2015, more than 250 delegates from PAKISAMA and partner farmers organizations (FOs), CSOs and government agencies attended the 2015 Knowledge Learning Market and Policy Engagement (KLMPE) on the theme “IYFF +1 Partnership for Food Security, Nutrition and Climate Resiliency: Increasing Farmers Market Power” and sub-themes on a) Sustainable agriculture and climate resiliency, b) Enlarging farmers market power, and c) Building agri-cooperatives.
In 2014, the Philippines celebrated the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), and 370 leaders and representatives of FOs, CSOs and government agencies joined a two-day trade fair, knowledge learning market and policy engagement conference to honor smallholder family farmers and fishers who feed the country and the world. In that event, ten policy papers grouped in five key themes were deliberated culminating in the submission to and acceptance by government representatives of what is known as the 2014 Quezon City Declaration. The participants committed themselves to work together to address pressing issues on asset reforms, climate change and resiliency, governance, young farmers and enterprise development.
The 2015 IYFF+1 KLMPE is a continuing dialogue of action to improve the lives of smallholder family farmers and fishers and their organizations. It aims to generate updates on the policies and programs that promote family farming, and provides a forum for various stakeholders to exchange on innovations, good practices and lessons learned from successful models. As a key outcome, the participants agreed to pursue several measures contained in the 2015 IYFF+1 Action Agenda.
The 2015 IYFF+1 KLMPE Technical Working Group is composed of PAKISAMA, Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia (AsiaDHRRA), Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC), We Effect, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Agriculture (DA) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
2015 IYFF + 1 ACTION AGENDA
WE ARE FAMILY FARMERS ORGANIZATIONS and RURAL DEVELOPMENT NGOs coming from different parts of the country engaging national government agencies on the key issues identified in 2014 IYFF national conference;
HAVING generated lessons after discussing GOOD PRACTICES ON THREE THEMES such as sustainable agriculture and climate resiliency, enlarging farmers market, and Agri cooperatives;
REALIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY in production and markets, strong ORGANIZATION of farmers, and PARTNERSHIPs among government, civil society, and family farmers organizations,
AGREED to pursue the following measures in 2016.
We will actively promote and undertake climate resilient agriculture by:
- transforming our monocrop farms into integrated, diversified, organic farms (IDOFs);
- increasing the budget on organic agriculture and adapting government research, irrigation, credit, farmers extension, infrastructure, tool and equipment, farmer and agriculture insurance, and other social protection, production and marketing support services to the requirements of IDOFs;
- increasing capacity of our respective organizations in climate resilient farm planning, record keeping, accessing public programs including Bottoms Up Budgeting, meaningful participation in the selection of NOAB representatives and creation of NOAB regional advisory council, and in networking among ourselves in various platforms to pursue joint activities.
We will enlarge farmers’’ market power by:
- Passing a law on institutional purchase such as the National Food Security Bill, defining family farmers, including incentives to family farmers;
- Expand and upscale APTCs to cover more sites and explore possibilities of merging with PAHP and other relevant programs; and
- Ensure all support services and social protection programs to transform family farmers into sustainable agri- entrepreneurs.
We will strengthen capacity of our agri-cooperatives in the country by:
- Improving the legal policy framework on agri-cooperatives to include the passage of the Agri Coop Bill, expanding PCIC coverage, social protection and support services to farmers and sustaining taxation incentives to cooperatives;
- Provide monitoring and customized interventions to agri-cooperatives, developing their governance, managerial, financial, and technical capacity to effectively provide full value chain production, processing and marketing services to members; and
- Synergize our agri-cooperatives, consolidating strengths and initiatives at different levels and continue building partnerships with government, CSOs, private sector and inter-governmental agencies.
We remain committed to pursue the imperatives of asset reforms fundamental to the blossoming of climate resilient, sustainable, and entrepreneurial family farmers. In this regard we will continue to intensify our joint advocacies in enacting into law the extension of CARPER and the coconut farmers trust fund. We will continue to pursue our advocacy towards the transformation of NCIP and BFAR into effective organizations that will ensure the faster completion of the distribution of ancestral domain titles to indigenous peoples and the delineation of municipal waters.
We will continue to make our programs not only gender-sensitive but also age-sensitive. We will jointly formulate and advocate for the passage of a Magna Carta on young farmers that will ensure more services and incentives to the development and growth of young farmer-entrepreneurs.
Understanding that developing family farmers would need long term development interventions, we will jointly lobby for the United Nations to build on the gains of 2014 IYFF by asking our national government to endorse a declaration of an International Decade of Family Farming.
Finally, we all SEE the importance to institutionalize the collaborative effort on IYFF of government, CSOs, and FFOs in the yearly conduct of Knowledge and Learning Market and Policy Engagement. We will jointly advocate for the enactment of an Executive Order from the Office of the President that will institutionalize the KLMPE-IYFF Technical Working Committee, putting an annual budget that will ensure broader participation especially of the young and women farmers and fishers associations and cooperatives.
DONE ON THIS 26TH DAY OF NOVEMBER, 2015 AT BSWM CONVENTION HALL, DILIMAN, QUEZON CITY.
