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The Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), held its Fourth General Assembly, with the theme “Sustaining our Gains, Nourishing our Work” on April 20-23 at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) in Taiwan.

The event was hosted by the Taiwan Wax Apple Development Association (TWADA) in cooperation with NPUST.

The highlights of the General Assembly was a review of AFA’s 2006-2010 strategic plan, as well as the crafting of its 2011-2015 strategic plan.

The WRF, together with AFA, AsiaDHRRA, and CIFA as the host partner, are organizing an IYFF Asia Continental strategy meeting, to be held in New Delhi, March 23-24, 2010. The participants will be Asian Farmers’ organisations supporting the IYFF Campaign as well as representatives of national and international policy makers.

The aim of the Continental meeting is to discuss issues related to the IYFF Campaign: how to involve more and more governments and civil society, how to reach a common understanding of the main issues and challenges of Family Farming, and the probable outstanding activities and benefits of the IYFF, once it is declared by the UN General Assembly.

Read the full story at AsiaDHRRA

WHAT: Press Conference of Isidoro “Boy” Ancog, Filipino farmer who went on hunger strike at FAO Biotech Meeting to protest imposition of biotechnology, especially GMOs, on developing countries

WHEN: March 8, 2010, 10:00 AM

WHERE: Max’s Restaurant, Quezon Circle

Filipino farmer ends hunger strike, exposes pro-GMO agenda of FAO meeting

Filipino farmer, Isidoro “Boy” Ancog,” who went on a hunger strike during the FAO biotech conference in Guadalajara, Mexico City on March 1-4, 2010, ended his protest action on March 4, 2010, the last day of the conference, and is coming home on Sunday, March 7.
“It’s over. I will be flying home early tomorrow to hug my family. I also miss my ducks, my garden and my rice farm, which was hit by El Nino,” Ancog wrote in an e-mail sent to friends and supporters in the Philippines.

Ancog, began his hunger strike last March 2 after intervening in a plenary session of the 10th FAO international technical conference on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10). Ancog objected to the fact that the Conference appeared to be massively promoting the commercial use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as the most viable solution to poverty and hunger in developing countries.

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The important role of women in ensuring food security and in coping with climate change cannot be denied. Thus, it is extremely important that the gender dimension not be left out in any analysis, discussion, and programs that seek to achieve food security and address climate change.

Last year, through its researcher, Ms. Riza Bernabe, AFA conducted a participatory gender study supported by IFAD in 5 countries – Philippines, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Cambodia, Thailand — in order to seek out this perspective. The research was informed by village, district and national consultations, as well as secondary data gathering.

The initial findings of the research show that: women indeed play very important roles in ensuring food security; climate change impacts women and men differently, with women bearing the brunt of the negative impacts. The research was also able to seek out the different food security initiatives and climate change coping strategies of small scale farmers, especially women farmers, in Asia.

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One of AFA’s thrusts in terms of capacity building for its members is to facilitate technical cooperation and farmer exchanges. In one of its meetings last year, the Execom mandated the secretariat to set up a system where this processes can be facilitated. Last December, an opportunity came up for a study tour to be conducted in the organic agriculture areas of PAKISAMA in the Philippines by staff of Ainoukai from Japan and the staff of an agricultural college in Allahabad, India.

Last December 4-13, 2009, Secretary General Kazuhiro Yamamoto and Ainou magazine editor Ryoko Tsuboi of Ainoukai, an AFA member organization promoting organic agriculture in Japan, are in the Philippines for a study tour on organic agriculture in PAKISAMA member and partner areas.

They were joined by Dr. Tiuro Miura, Mr. Takaya Machigami, Mr. Santosh Kumar, Mr. A.K. Mishra, and Ms. Manmeet Kaur from the Makino School of Continuing and non-Formal Education (MSCFE) in Allahabad, India, who are also practicing organic agriculture.

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The Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), a regional alliance of nine national farmers’ organizations, in eight countries in Asia, representing ten million farmers, held a consultation-workshop, entitled “Farmers’ Voices, Farmers’ Choices: AFA Regional Consultations on Food Sovereignty, Climate Change and Marketing”, last October 6-10, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.

This consultation was part of AFA’s continuing efforts to deepen the understanding of small scale men and women farmers on regional and global events, especially their implications on small scale men and women farmers. It was held parallel to the UN Intersessional Meeting on Climate Change, also held in Bangkok last September 27-October 9, 2009.

There were two main AFA events:

1) On October 6-8, AFA conducted a regional consultation on “Asian Women Farmers’ Reclaiming Space for Food Sovereignty Amidst Climate Change”. Women farmer leaders came together to understand the Asian and global dynamics of the climate change negotiations, to share their initiatives in ensuring food security and in responding to the effects of climate change.

2) On October 9-10, AFA conducted the “Regional Knowledge Sharing on AFA Members’ Marketing Initiatives: Basics in Engaging the Market”. This knowledge sharing gave the participants additional knowledge and insights on how to develop/improve their marketing strategies of identified focus crops. During the workshop, a framework for commodity based organizing was formulated to guide farmers’ groups in forming commodity-based groups.

The event was hosted by SorKorPor, with the support of Agriterra.

Click here for the overall program: http://asianfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ProgramDesignGenericV2.pdf

Click here for the women’s consultation workshop program: http://asianfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/WomenConsultationWorkshopV2.pdf

Click here for the marketing consultation workshop program: http://asianfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/MarketingConsultationWorkshopV2.pdf