The Executive Committee of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) held its 22nd meeting in Quezon City, Philippines yesterday, with PAKISAMA (the member of AFA in the Philippines) as host.
It was the first meeting of the new set of Execom members, who were elected during the last AFA General Assemby in Korea last March 3, 2008. Several decisions concerning AFA’s internal organization, as well as its mission of helping small farmers in Asia were arrived at.
The Execom tasked the AFA secretariat to take on the the role of arranging and facilitating exchange among members and to set up a system for this. AFA members have been conducting bilateral projects, like the cooperation project of VNFU and TDFA on dairy production.
In commemoration of the martyrdom of Lee Kyung Hae, the Korean farmer-leader who committed suicide in Cancun, Mexico in 2003 in protest of WTO, AFA committed to support the marathon event of the Korean Advanced Farmers’ Federation (KAFF) on September 10, 2008. AFA members will also hold activities in their respective countries in honor of Lee Kyung Hae. Further, AFA declared September 10 as international farmers’ day.
The Execom also brainstormed on possible projects to be developed and submitted for support by AFA on areas such as production and marketing, sustainable agriculture, land reform, women, capacity building, and others. The secretariat was tasked to develop the project ideas discussed.
The next meeting of the Execom will be in December 2008.
Comments are closed