www.asianfarmers.org

Aliansi Petain Indonesia (API) facilitated the Jambi Farmers Discussion on March 16-17, 2008. It was attended by 17,500 farmers from five districts (Batang Hari, Tebo, Janjung, West Jabung and east “Tanjung jabung ng Jabung Timur). The Governor of Jambi acted “inklaf”” (reverted their rights land). It was authorized by PT Wira Karya Sakti for 82,000 hectares in 5 districts. There was also a gift fund of Rp.1 billion for ten years. The future plan of the farmers is to conduct a dialogue to cooperate with the Agriculture Department to manage their land for food production and social forestry.

SUNTHORN PONGPAO &SONTHANAPORN INCHAN, Bangkok Post

Convoys of indebted farmers returned to Bangkok yesterday to protest against what they say were empty promises the cabinet made a week ago to help ease their loan burden.

About 2,000 farmers had gathered last night under the Rama VIII bridge near the Bank of Thailand’s head office, the same location they rallied at last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Farmers from the North and Central Plains joined up in Ayutthaya before travelling together to Bangkok, while Chachoengsao police could not stop determined farmers in e-tan farm trucks coming from the East.

The farmers want their debts with banks and loan sharks transferred to the Farmer Rehabilitation Development Fund, which offers low interest rates.

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The 2007 AFA Annual Report is now available for download at the AFA website.

The report contains AFA’s activities, results, major challenges and recommendations, members’ activities, and financial report for the year that passed.

Click here to download the report in PDF format.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) held a consultation meeting with some farmer organizations and non-government organizations yesterday, June 23, 2008, at the Ugnayan Hall, Partnerships Center, Quezon City, Philippines.

Ms. Esther Penunia, Secretary General of AFA, welcomed Mr. Sana Jatta, IFAD CountryProgramme Manager, and Mr. Yolando Arban, IFAD Philippines Country Programme, on their visit to the AFA office.

(Photo taken by Ms. Shui Tsai, Technical Assistant of AFA)

In the first quarter of this year, the Indonesian Peasant Aliance (API) focused its efforts on the settlement of the Peasant Case in Sukabumi East Java. The land quarrel started in 1996. On January 28, 2008, API supported the effort on settlement with the National Commission of Human Rights through mediation. The mediation was made among the Sukabumi peasant, a regent of Sukabumi, the head of the regency police, and a representative from the enterprise side. The peasant won 700 USD as compensation.

By Prime Sarmiento, IPS

MANILA, Jun 23 (IPS) – The jatropha plant may be the key to addressing the problems of energy and food self-sufficiency in the Mekong region. Cultivating this hardy plant will not only provide biofuel but will also ensure that agricultural lands devoted to food production will not be diverted to fuel crops.

“Planting jatropha is commercially viable. The main advantage of jatropha is that you can plant it even in idle lands,” according to Mercedita A. Sombilla, who is conducting an Asian Development Bank (AsDB)-funded study on the development of the biofuel industry in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The GMS is composed of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the southern part of China.

Read the full story at IPS

Myrtha Désulmé, Contributor, Jamaica Gleaner, Sunday | June 22, 2008,

A massive revolution is under way: It is a global rebellion of the people against unfair trade practices, the high cost of living, and unaffordable food.

A seismic groundswell of rebellion has built up all over the so-called Third World against the dominant global economic system. Haitians, whose trail-blazing War of Independence established the foundations of universal freedom in the modern world, were the first to go to the barricades.

Unprecedented challenge

It has been galling to watch some of the architects of this global crisis, whose institutions have violated the dignity of the world’s poor and brought our world to the brink of food wars, finally waking up to the disastrous consequences of the free trade policies they have been driving for decades on the fragile economies of the developing world. What were they thinking all of these years?

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By Fu Jing (China Daily), Updated: 2008-06-20 11:03

“Generally, Chinese farmers recycle crop straws, grass, husk and animal dung and use it as bio-gas and the process can produce fertilizer, which is organic and environmentally friendly for farming.

The country produced 750,000 tons of bio-ethanol last year, and it is scheduled to boost output to 5 million tons by 2010. Twenty-six million households in the country’s rural areas were using methane for cooking and heating by the end of last year, and another 5 million households will join the group this year.”

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Source: Rabobank, 16/06/2008, Flex News

13 June 2008 – Restrictions on rice exports recently witnessed, primarily in Asia, have caused nervous excitement in the world rice market. “Rice is Asia’s ‘bread and butter’. Governments in Asia have always been protective of this industry as it is a main staple for most countries here in the region,” says Brady Sidwell of Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory (FAR) team in Asia.

In short supply

When rice supplies are short as seen from the record low stock levels globally, countries have to make a decision to either import more and/or export less. “In recent months, inflationary fears which have seen rice prices treble, have resulted in a tightening of borders through a mixed approach of reduced import tariffs and elevated taxes on exports of rice in the likes of Thailand, China, Vietnam and India,” says Sidwell.

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The 181 countries at a United Nations summit have pledged to fix the global food crisis, but the meeting’s final outcome has left anti-poverty campaigners dismayed.

Read the full story here.