AFA’s Chairperson Uon Sophal, together with FNN Executive Director Pan Sopheap, attended the 11th general assembly of Agricord held last May 30-31, 2013 in Helsinki, Finland. AgriCord is the network of “agri-agencies”, non-governmental organisations for development cooperation with structural links to the farmers’ and rural members’ organisations in their home countries. It provides support to farmers’ organisations in developing countries, covering both capacity building and concrete operations.
The general assembly discussed statutory matters and accepted FFD (Finnish agri-agency for Food and Forestry Development) as a new member of AgriCord, bringing the total number of member agri-agencies to ten, which are backed by farmers organizations in Europe (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden), in Canada (Quebec), in Asia (seven countries) and in Africa (Senegal).
The general assembly also discussed the future of Agricord through a seminar entitled “AgriCord beyond 2013 – dealing with the new challenges of farmers’ organisations in developing countries.”
Different issues were presented through video messages by Prof. Tim Lang (Centre for Food Policy, City University, London), Mr. Jean-Luc Francois (Agence Française de Développement), Mr. Ibrahima Coulibaly (Coordination Nationale des Organisations de Producteurs du Mali), and Mrs. Sophia Murphy (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minnesota/Washington).
Sophal gave a reaction to Murphy’s video message.
Other farmer leaders who gave reactions to the other video presentations were Mr. Marcos Rochinski, Secretary General of FETRAF (Federação dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Familiar) in Brasil and
Mr. Samba Gueye, President of CNCR (Conseil National de Concertation et de Coopération des Ruraux) in Sénégal.
In his intervention, Sophal called on Agricord to prioritize:
1. Development with equity, including right and access to land and other resources by smallholders;
2. Investment in family farming in order to ensure sustainable development, with particular support to organic and ecological agriculture and conservation of species;
3. Investment in young farming families through new innovation and increased processing capacity of farmers and linkage to market;
4. Investment in rural youth through provision of agricultural land and soft loan capital investments with low interest rates; and,
5. Development that is focused on ensuring food security by strengthening the capacity of farmer producers through participation and collaboration with all stakeholders.
“The event has really been relevant to AFA and Asian farmers, because the donors (funding agencies), especially AgriCord, wanted to hear the real voices of farmers organizations and the best experiences that have been done by farmers. Most of the 15 points of AgriCord’s Strategic Plan are really relevant to what AFA and Asian farmers have been doing and plan,” said Sophal after attending the general assembly.
“The most important result of the event is that AgriCord and other funding agencies have agreed and valued the roles of farmer organizations as a potential vehicle to drive and ensure world food securities,” he added.
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