World Summit on Sustainable Development 

Johannesburg, 30 August 2002

by Mrs. Mercy Karanja, Chief Executive, Kenya National Farmers Union

 

 

Mr Chairman,

Farmers are confident that discussions are clear because they have been clearly spelled out. Now, we have to get to more commitments to the actions agreed in the WEHAB discussions.

We felt that there was a general consensus between governments and civil society representatives and especially amongst the developing countries.

Indeed, this Summit is not much about political will but rather means to fulfil the commitments. Let me present you as a Farmer of a developing country a few points on the ways to implement some of the actions at the grass root level top be accessible to the poor Farmers.

First, Food security must be one of the priorities of this Summit. Without food, there is no possibility of any form of development. Women being the majority of Farmers in developing countries deserve special attention especially in development programs in particular regarding access to productive resources (water, land, genetic resources, technology).

The issues identified in WEHAB have a direct impact on the quality of livelihoods of Farmers and in particular of women Farmers.

Women in girls in developing countries spend 40% of their times fetching water and firewood for fuel wood. This denies girls’ chance for quality education and for women time to do other development work.

Women Farmers are the main custodians of the natural resources. Therefore, they need to be involved in the implementation of the actions agreed upon especially concerning water management at the community level and use of the most cost effective local sources of energy.

Women do hold and conserve local knowledge. They have a lot to offer to the scientific community in terms of local knowledge. They also need women friendly technologies which will easy their burden and free their time to be able to fulfil themselves.

The major concern of Women Farmers in developing countries is to feed their families and to supply of farm need through the sale of the surplus produce.  To achieve this, rural areas require infrastructure but more importantly access to the local markets. Women lack access to the markets at different levels :

• In terms of rural access roads and appropriate means of transportation
• In terms of storage to conserve their products
• In terms of adding value to their products through agro-processing
• In terms of market information due to lack of institutional organisation

To overcome these constraints, Farmers need to be organised to strengthen their voices and secure decent incomes without waiting for middlemen. 

These could be achieved through building the capacities of Farmers and their institutions through deliberate Farmers’ mobilisation.

To achieve this, the Farmers are calling for:

• Clear financial support agriculture and bring it back at the forefront of the development agenda
• Clear financial support for their institutional building
• Clear financial support to develop rural infrastructure

National governments should allocate more resources to agriculture out of their budgets. They also call on the international community to fulfil their 0.7% commitments of ODA for agriculture.

Let conclude Mr. Chairperson by insisting on the need to curb dumping of subsidised products into our markets as denial of Farmers access to the local market and creating artificial law of consumer prices. The farmers call for elimination of export distorted subsidies while at the same time insist on financial support for them to able to live out of agriculture. The Farmers recognise the need for partnerships especially EU-ACP partnership through the new Cotonou agreement and we are eagerly awaiting implementation of the proposed actions. Accordingly, the NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) is a right frame to develop agriculture but needs to create space for farmer’s participation.