www.asianfarmers.org

(Achieving rice self-sufficiency is an important food security concern for rice-consuming Asian countries like the Philippines. But government corruption and import dependency undermine food sovereignty and hurt small farmers and consumers alike. Further, advocates warn that the rice industry faces the threats of deregulation and privatization. — Admin)

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III should investigate first the source of surge in debt of the National Food Authority under the Arroyo administration before considering any proposal that may only worsen the problem, according to a network of food security advocates.

In a news release, the Task Force Food Sovereignty on Thursday warned that Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima’s proposed solution to stop the NFA rice subsidy and to sell the staple at prices determined by the market may only increase hunger and poverty incidence in the country.

Read the full story at the Philippine Daily Inquirer

AFA Secretary General Estrella Penunia is in Rome to attend the Third Global Farmers’ Forum from 15 and 16 February 2010 in conjunction with the Thirty-third session of IFAD’s Governing Council. The Forum will bring together more 70 farmers’ leaders from around the world, representing millions of smallholders and rural producers from all over the world who will interact with IFAD staff and selected partners. The Forum will be opened by the President of IFAD, Kanayo Nwanze. Its closing session, in the afternoon of Tuesday, 16 February, will be open to the members of IFAD’s governing bodies.

The following is an excerpt from IFAD’s social reporting blog:

Estrella Penunia, gave a passionate keynote address, in which she said: “Women farmers will not remain victims, we’re key solution providers, nothing about us without us”. She made a plea to move away from gender stereotypes and reminded the participants and audience that women should be at the forefront of the agriculture. She said: “If we earn more, we can spend more on food, education, health.” Estrella then continued to say “Women perform magic to put food on the table”.

In her keynote address, Estrella shared with the gathering that “in many developing countries women cannot owe land, yet we are the one who cultivate the land and take care of land.”

She continuted to say that “50-90% of work in farms is done by women and women ensure food security when crops fail.”

Estrella Penunia and other women leaders such as Elisabeth Atangana, Kati Partanen and all the women farmer leaders showed passion in their interventions. Elisabeth remarked: “If women don’t have economic power, they can’t do very much. Women need access to financial resources, and access to land”.

As Estrella said: “Women work with personal touch, we need to help more women farmer leaders to further unleash their potential”.

Read more at at the IFAD Social Reporting Blog

Iman Prihandono , Sydney | Tue, 01/12/2010 9:29 AM | Opinion

Entering year 2010 is marked by the entry into a free trade area agreement between ASEAN and China, also known as the ASEAN-China FTA. Little attention was given to the possible impact of this FTA agreement to fulfill human rights in Indonesia. Some rights include the right to health and a healthy environment, work and earn a decent livelihood, the access to natural resources, and other social, economic, and cultural rights.

The ASEAN-China FTA was first made in 2001 at the ASEAN-China Summit, which formulated a Framework on Economic Cooperation and established an ASEAN-China Free Trade Area. Under this framework, establishing a free trade area within 10 years time was agreed.

The ASEAN-China FTA is not the first trade liberalization agreement entered by Indonesia. Indonesia’s participation in regional and international trade agreements began with the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1992, and followed its accession as a WTO member, as well as other agreements such as the ASEAN-Japanese FTA, the Korea-ASEAN FTA and a bilateral agreement with Japan, the Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJ-EPA). These agreements could possibly be added by the EU-ASEAN FTA. The same possibility may also happen with the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA, both agreements are now still in the negotiation process.

Critics said a number of trade agreements may potentially hinder the fulfillment of human rights.

Read the full article at “The Jakarta Post”

AFA participated in a brainstorming on ASEAN stakeholder engagement held on November 23-25 at the Hotel Gran Mahakam in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Click here for the news article from the ASEAN website: http://www.aseansec.org/23972.htm#Article-9

AFA participated in an international conference entitled “People’s Food Sovereignty Now: Civil Society Organizations (CSO) Forum Parallel to World Summit on Food Security 2009″ held on November 13-17, in Rome, Italy.

AFA was represented by Ms. Sudaporn Sittisathapornkul (Khun Paew), Chairperson, AFA, and Adviser, SKP; Mr. Pote Chumsri (Khun Pote), Secretary General, SKP and translator; Mr. Jonjon Sarmiento (Jon), Youth Leader Organizer, PAKISAMA; Ms. Luisita Esmao (Ka Cita), Chairperson, LAKAMBINI; and Ms. Ma. Estrella Penunia (Esther), Secretary General, AFA.

The purpose of the CSO forum was to facilitate the participation of women, small-scale farmers and peasants, Indigenous Peoples, artisanal fisherfolks, food and rural workers, youth, the urban poor, environmental organizations, human rights defenders, NGO and other CSO working for food sovereignty and to ensure that their voices are heard in the World Food Summit; and to seek the commitment of governments and UN agencies to the people’s food sovereignty agenda as key alternative to eradicate hunger.

Click here for the CSO forum program: http://asianfarmers.org/events/200911wfscsoforum/01csoforumprogram.pdf

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During the World Food Summit last November 16-18, 2009 in Rome, Italy, AFA joined other civil society organizations in calling for government support for food reserves to address hunger and stabilize markets.

Click here for the press release: http://asianfarmers.org/?p=750

AFA participated in a side event entitled “Agriculture in Climate Change Negotiations – Identifying Farmers’ Solutions” during the CSO Forum Parallel to the World Summit on Food Security last November 13 and 17, 2009 in Rome, Italy. The workshop was attended by leaders of peasant and fisher organizations from around the world. It aimed to help farmers organizations define their engagement in the discussions on the major challenges for agriculture related to climate change during the FAO World Summit on Food Security last November 16-18, 2009 and the Copenhagen UN Conference on Climate Change last December 8 to 18, 2009.

Click here for the program: http://asianfarmers.org/?p=746

AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia represented AFA in the international meeting entitled “Territories, agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors faced with climate change: A better understanding of vulnerabilities for a more efficient response” organized by FAO and UNDP last October 21-22, 2009 in Brent, Le Quartz.

Click here for the program: http://asianfarmers.org/events/200910climatechangevulnerabilities/program.pdf

Click here for the introductory note: http://asianfarmers.org/events/200910climatechangevulnerabilities/intronote.pdf

AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia represented AFA to the World Food Week events in Rome on October 12-16, 2009.

She was a panelist in one of the sessions of the High Level Experts Forum on “How to Feed the World in 2050” held at the FAO Headquarters in Rome last October 12-13. It was a talk show format.

Click here for the program: http://asianfarmers.org/events/200910worldfoodweek/hlef.pdf

She was also a panelist in the IFAD-sponsored workshop on organic agriculture last October 15.

Click here for the program: http://asianfarmers.org/events/200910worldfoodweek/orgagri&ftwokrshop.doc

And she was also a panelist in the CSO roundtable last October 16.

Click here for the program: http://asianfarmers.org/events/200910worldfoodweek/csortd.doc

Click here for more information about the World Food Week: http://www.fao.org/getinvolved/worldwideevents/detail-events/en/item/35405/icode/

AFA participated in a WTO public forum entitled “Global Problems, Global Solutions: Towards Better Global Governance” held last 28 30 September 28 30, 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Click here for more information about the WTO Public Forum 2009: http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/public_forum09_e/public_forum09_e.htm

AFA Secretary General Esther Penunia was a panellist for a session organized by IATP on September 29 at 2:15-4:15 PM entitled “A new global contract for food and agriculture: what can the WTO contribute?”

Click here for a blog article and audio recording of the session from AITP: http://iatp.typepad.com/thinkforward/2009/10/another-take-on-wto-and-food-stuff.html

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