SACAU Summary FAO supports Farmer Leaders

FAO Regional Conference in Africa

March 2004, South Africa

Farmer Leaders from across Africa are being supported by United Nations Agencies to gain access to and participate in the plans for the revival of agriculture in Africa.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the specialized funding agency, International Fund for Agriculture development (IFAD) have engaged with African Farmer Leaders in an unprecedented series of events culminating in a statement to the FAO Ministerial Meeting on 4 March 2004.

Guided by the vision and principles of the New Plan for Africas’ Development (NEPAD), a Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Plan (CAADP) is about to be implemented – the first of four NEPAD investment pillars. Farmer Organisations contributed to the production of CAADP and are generally satisfied with the content and potential outcomes.

The question of implementing CAADP became the focus of a year long effort by Farmer Organisations to gather, synthesize and communicate a continental view on their role in implementation. The initiative was spearheaded by the West African farmers’ confederation, ROPPA, and with the active support of the East African Farmers Federation, a Central African body and the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions.

SACAU hosted the Synthesis Workshop and organized the farmers’ participation in the FAO NGO/CSO Consultation. The outcome of these was the crafting of the Johannesburg Declaration, a statement by NGO/CSOs on agriculture and the fight against hunger and poverty.

The Johannesburg Declaration noted that the challenges included:

• Under performance of African agriculture and the negative impact on food security;
  
• Lack of capacity of Farmer organisations to support farmer development;
  
• Little or no participation in development plans and programmes; and
  
• No clear role for Farmer Organisations as major stakeholder and beneficiary in NEPAD.

Farmer Organisations committed themselves to continued collaboration with all stakeholders to ensure that the issues pertaining to the vision of social and economic empowerment is lobbied for and articulated.

Some of the practical responses by farmer organisations are:

• To operate democratic and transparent farmer organisations that are accountable to its members;
  
• To pursue ongoing dialogue and consultation that results in a call for action by governments to address issues and concerns;
  
• To support the establishment of and/or strengthening of rural communities and organisations; and
  
• To work with partners to improve the performance of the agriculture sector, respect international protocols and generally ensure that agriculture becomes the foundation on which the economic success of Africa rests.