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By Jack Wilkinson, President of the IFAP
“Investing in agriculture for food security” means investing in farmers World Food Day 2006 celebrates the theme “Investing in agriculture for food security”. Farmers from all over the world take this opportunity to emphasize the urgent need to invest not only in agriculture but particularly in farmers if food security is to be achieved.
The facts are there, agricultural growth is critical to reducing world poverty, since poverty is a substantially rural problem. The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) are clear on this: agriculture is key for rural development and hence key to the fight against poverty and hunger. Now, it is time for more real actions to attack poverty and hunger, and investing in farmers is a real action. Investing in farmers means investing in a profitable future for farm families. It is they who are the central actors driving the development of rural communities. Farmers need investment that gives them access to credit and land, access to local markets, access to risk management instruments, access to good regulatory systems, strong farmers’ organisations, and strong agricultural cooperatives. To invest efficiently in agriculture, we need to adopt an innovative “farmer centred approach”.
Worldwide, farmers are very disappointed to see the general lack of progress to achieve the MDG to reduce poverty and hunger by half by 2015, and the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) challenges governments and donors to re-commit to tackling this issue. However, there are good examples to follow, like the commitments of the Dutch and Canadian governments to help to strengthen farmers’ organisations through the capacity-building programs of AgriCord. Farmers need to be organised to have a voice in policy and to be empowered in the market. For IFAP, public-private partnerships are a key part of the solution to improving farmers’ social and economic conditions and to promoting rural economies. But governments must assume their responsibilities by investing in good regulatory systems so that farmers everywhere are able to meet international food safety standards and are able to benefit from the markets which function competitively and which deliver fair prices to farmers.
Fair prices for farm products, and a reasonable cost structure for agriculture including efficient infrastructure, means that farmers can make profits and live from their work. Profitable farmers will be able to invest in the development of their rural communities.
On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, IFAP adopted a statement of 10 principles to facilitate the full contribution of farmers to society. These principles were included in a World Farmers’ Charter adopted in Seoul last May. With this Charter, farmers from all over the world call on national governments, donor agencies, international institutions and other stakeholders to join with them in a spirit of solidarity to work together to implement these 10 principles for the development of family farm agriculture worldwide. We renew this call today to world leaders and the international community at the occasion of World Food Day focused on the importance of investing in agriculture.
The Charter underlines the following principles:
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Julie Emond
Communications Coordinator E-mail: julie.emond@ifap.org Phone:+33 1 45 26 05 53 Fax: +33 1 48 74 72 12 
IFAP is the world farmers’ organisation representing over 600 million farm families grouped in 115 national organisations in 80 countries.
It is a global network in which farmers from industrialised and developing countries exchange concerns and set common priorities. IFAP advocates farmers’ interests at the international level since 1946 and has General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
