Reclaiming Spaces: Small Men and Women Farmers Defining the Challenge for ASEAN

November 3, 2007
ACSC+, Peninsula Excelsior, Singapore

Reclaiming Spaces: Small Men and Women Farmers Defining the Challenge for ASEAN

by Mr. Muhammad Nuruddin
Executive Committee Member, AFA ( Asian Farmers’ Association)
Secretary General, API ( Aliansi Petani Indonesia)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, fellow people from Southeast Asian countries. I am happy to be here with you this morning. My organization, the Asian Farmers’ Association, or AFA, is an alliance of nine (9) national farmers’ organizations in eight countries. The countries belong to ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners. We would like to share our views as small, subsistence farmers and producers, in the era of an ASEAN, trying to have economic integration in the region through free trade or liberalization.

Main Issues and Concerns

Agriculture continues to be a significant and sensitive sector in the economy of most ASEAN countries. Excluding Singapore and Brunei, the contribution of the sector to total domestic output ranged from 7.9%, in the case of Malaysia; to as much as 50%, in the case of Lao PDR.

Agriculture’s contribution to total employment ranged from 16% to 78%. Agriculture is still a vital source of livelihood and income for the population, especially in the rural areas.

Even if agriculture remains to be a vital sector in most ASEAN economies, we, small men and women farmers and producers, who form the majority of the people dependent on agriculture, are still poor. In ASEAN, poverty is highest and most widespread in the rural areas, where agriculture is the main source of livelihood.

Our poverty is mainly caused not by poor or weak trading, but by unequal distribution of resources, small subsistence farmers’ lack of access to economic opportunities and our poor participation in decision-making processes.

The current integration of agriculture in ASEAN countries has not benefitted small men and women farmers. Rather, big agri business and transnational companies are reaping the benefits. Unabated and unchecked, the integration will further displace us, lose our livelihoods, and lose the rural heritage and the culture of agriculture communities in Southeast Asia. Women farmers bear the brunt, as they do 50% or more of agricultural work in almost all crops. With less income in their pockets, there is less money for food, health, and education of the whole family.

Challenges to ASEAN stakeholders

Principles. Our needs as small men and women farmers and producers are simple: we want secured livelihoods, more decent and therefore, happier and more satisfying lives.

ASEAN’s agriculture policies should contribute to poverty alleviation efforts, considering that agriculture is the main employer of most of its poor people. They should not lead to displacement and should not heighten existing vulnerability within the sector. Also, the policies should consider that agriculture plays a crucial role in meeting the food security needs of a country.

Thus, agriculture integration shall be pursued in a manner that promotes the well-being of all, with preferential option for the poor and marginalized. It should be equitable, inclusive, sustainable, rights-based, and eventually leads to empowerment of the poor.

Policies. We ask ASEAN to develop a strategic policy for agriculture that integrates trade and development and that promotes the principles we have just mentioned. This strategic policy can first be done at the national level, then levelled off and harmonized at the regional level. This policy should have the following principles and features:

1. Small men and women farmers need – first things first: land to till. In Indonesia, much of the agricultural lands are in the hands of the state or big plantation owners. In the Philippines, much of the prime agricultural lands are still in the hands of landowners who wield influence in executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. This agriculture policy will make access and control of land resources a pre-requisite to trade and development.

2. Provide adequate support services to small farmers like acess to credit/capital, technology, crop insurance, as well as price support, targetting women farmers .

3. pour massive infrastructure investments .

4. direct research and development efforts to raise the quality of local commodities.

5. ensure self sufficiency in basic or staple crops of the country ; where producers are assisted to produce enough food that comply with safety and environmental standards, and where governments try to balance production and demand, meeting domestic needs for staple crops first rather than international needs for cash crops.

6. provide calibrated liberalization and calibrated protection to protect the jobs and livelihoods of the small producers, attuned to the specific conditions and needs of each member country.

7. develop tighter domestic forward and backward linkages as well as focusing on the linkages between the agricultural and food processing industries. The interests of producers and end users can converge through the use of trade and price management that ensures that the price spread between imports and local commodities is not too big.

8. mainstream sustainable agriculture through massive extension and promotion. Formulate standards for sustainable and fair production and marketing, such that farmers and traders are encouraged to produce and sell only products that are produced in a safe and sustainable manner and that gives fair returns to small producers.

9. institutionalize mechanisms for participation of small men and women producer/farmer organizations and non-government social development organizations in decision-making processes of ASEAN – e.g. an ASEAN Farmers’ Council, which ASEAN officials can consult on matters affecting their respective sectors. To ensure quality participation, ASEAN governments should
– disclose the terms of the trade negotiations early enough for meaningful discussions
-hold public hearings nd consultations especially with small scale farmers, fishers and civil society groups
-translate the proposed terms of trade agreements into non technical language and in local languages
-give ample representation of small men and women producers in these consultative and decision making bodies

Our stake. For farmers’ groups like us in AFA, we need to build, strengthen and consolidate ourselves both at the national and regional levels so that we can be powerful, effective, influential voices at all political levels-local, national regional . We may not be able to match the money of the big agribusiness corporations, but we can have the numbers. We can match , maybe even surpass their passion and dedication, but for us, dedication towards making trade fair and just, dedication to make agriculture still a viable and important livelihood.

Hand in hand with other like minded civil society groups we can exchange information and views and help promote people-to-people cooperation. With governments and non-government organizations, we can implement projects and programs on sustainable production of crops, on sustainable management of natural resources, and on efficient but fair and just marketing and trading. In so doing, we likewise build our capacities for self- governance and entrepreneurship.

Through all of these , and working in solidarity and partnership with other key stakeholder we build our capacities to make things happen, for the benefit of our families, communities, our nation, our region. Thank you very much. Have a good day!