History

Presidents / Secretaries General 50th and 60th Anniversary General Conferences Founding Members Countries

 

In 1945, as governments were putting the final touches to their own network of international bodies, some of the major national farmers’ organisations laid plans to an international organisation to represent them. With the creation of the United Nations system, and the FAO in particular, farmers wanted to be represented and heard on the international level. 

IFAP was founded in 1946, in London, UK. It was established to secure international cooperation of national organisations of agricultural producers “in meeting the nutritional and consumptive requirements of the peoples of the world and in improving the economic and social status of all who live by and on the land.” Thus IFAP had the twin objectives of working to assure world food and nutrition security on one hand and of assuring reasonable livelihoods for farm families on the other hand.

As with the United Nations family of organisations, membership in IFAP has evolved considerably since 1946. Developing countries have become the majority of the membership. IFAP’s Millennium Development Cooperation Initiative in 2000 also opened the way to many emerging farmers’ organisations from developing countries to join IFAP. This development cooperation initiative established a new IFAP membership structure, and saw the setting up of a movement-to-movement capacity-building program under which farmers’ organisations in industrialised countries help to strengthen the organisations of their colleagues in developing countries.

Initially preoccupied with the reconstruction of agriculture after the devastation of the Second World War, and guided by a strong belief in the philosophy of active international cooperation, IFAP has gradually shifted its emphasis as the farming sector has undergone major changes, particularly of productivity.  Government support for ‘international cooperation’ in the 1960s has given way to support for ‘international competition’ in the mid 1980s. This led to a change of emphasis in IFAP’s policy, moving from proposals for international commodity agreements to proposals on international rules for fair competition.

When it was founded, IFAP’s activities were exclusively at the global level, and the policy focus was on broad horizontal issues, like trade, the environment, and development. Today, IFAP’s has added to this core global activity, a regional committee structure and specialised committees and commodity groups.

Through the years, IFAP has stayed true to its principles of universality, democracy and mutual understanding. IFAP is entirely governed and financed by its member organisations. 

60th Anniversary of IFAP

Photo presentation - ... some History		A glance back over IFAP’s 60 year history by David King, Secretary General

50th Anniversary of IFAP

“Declaration of the Farmers of the World on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of IFAP” Versailles, April 1996
	London, England, 1946

Presidents

James Turner, United Kingdom	1946-1949	Sir Henry Plumb,U.K.	1979-1982
Herb Hannam, Canada	1949-1951	C.Freiherr Heereman, Germany	1982-1986
Pierre Martin, France	1951-1953	Glenn Flaten, Canada	1986-1990
Alan Kline, U.S.A.	1953-1955	H.O.A. Kjeldsen, Denmark	1990-1994
J.Andrew, New Zealand	1955-1958	Graham Blight, Australia	1994-1998
James Patton, U.S.A.	1958-1961	Gerard Doornbos, The Netherlands	1998- 2002
W. Biescheuvel, The Netherlands	1961-1963	Jack Wilkinson, Canada	2002- 2008
H. Newsom, U.S.A.	1963-1966	Ajay Vashee, Zambia	2008-
E.McCallum, New Zealand	1966-1969
Jean Deleau, France	1969-1972
Charles Munro, Canada	1972-1975
T.T. Dechant, U.S.A.	1975-1979

Secretary General

Andrews Cairns, Canada	1947-1952
Roger Savary, France	1952-1971
Michael P. Cracknell, United Kingdom	1972-1985
Jo Feingold, Kenya	1985-1988
David King, Canada	1988-

General Conferences

Founding. London, England	1946	20.Baden, Austria	1974
1.Scheveningen, Netherlands	1947	21.Washington D.C., USA	1975
2.Paris, France	1948	22.Helsinki, Finland	1977
3.Guelph, Canada	1949	23.Sorrento, Italy	1979
4.SaltjObaden, Sweden	1950	24.Buenos Aires, Argentina	1980
5.Mexico City, Mexico	1951	25.London, United Kingdom	1982
6.Rome, Italy	1953	26.New Delhi, India	1984
7.Nairobi, Kenya	1954	27.Bonn, Germany	1986
8.Rome, Italy	1955	28.Adelaide, Australia	1988
9.Purdue, USA	1957	29.Trondheim, Norway	1990
10.Brussels, Belgium	1958	30.Québec, Canada	1992
11.New Delhi, India	1959	31.Istanbul, Turkey	1994
12.Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia	1961	32.Versailles, France	1996
13.Dublin, Ireland	1963	33.Manila, Philippines	1998
14.Roturua, New-Zealand	1964	34.Hanover, Germany	2000
15.London, United Kingdom	1966	35.Cairo, Egypt	2002
16.Tunis, Tunisia	1968	36.Washington D.C., USA	2004
17.Tokyo, Japan	1969	37. Seoul, Republic of Korea	2006
18.Paris, France	1971	38. Warsaw, Poland	2008
19.Ottawa, Canada	1972

Founding Member Countries

There are 13 signatories to the Church House agreement to set up IFAP, signed in London, England, in May 1946. They are from farm leaders from the following nations:

Australia Belgium Canada Denmark France India Luxembourg Netherlands New Zealand Norway Rhodesia (Zambia-Zimbabwe) United Kingdom United States of America