Chronic neglect of agriculture in Asia and the Pacific has left over 200 million people in extreme poverty amid rising prices for foodstuffs and despite robust growth in other sectors. In Asia, over two-thirds of the population are small farmers or live in farming communities, and thus the universally recognized right of farmers to save and reuse farm-saved seed is of tantamount importance. For agriculture in Asia to thrive and prosper, it needs an enabling public sector, facilitating partnerships between farmers and the public and private sectores in order to facilitate and enable the sharing of lessons learnd and engage farmers with business and the private sector. Smallholder farmers require differentiated policies that promot and support smallholder market access. Farmers' organizations are taking the lead to influence policy makers and donors to take stock of existing evidence to increase support for capacity building, improve the dissemination of knowledge and generate targeted investment in sustainable agricultural solutions.

The IFAP Regional Committee for Asia is a permanent forum where farmers of the region can work together on issues of specific concern to them. Following on from the success from the IFAP Asian workshop held in Tokyo in April 1997, IFAP was able to set up a new Asian regional committee. This IFAP Asian Farmer’s Committee was officially established in Lucknow, India in December 1997.

The aim of the Asian Farmers’ Committee is “Sustaining small-farm agriculture in the context of trade liberalisation and globalisation”. It does this through:

• Improving the awareness and understanding of farmer organisations in Asia of trade issues, the status of trade negotiations, and related matters through briefing papers, studies, publications and the electronic exchange of information.
  
• Conducting impact assessment studies on the effects of trade liberalisation on small-farm agriculture and study how some countries are coping with change and liberalisation (i.e. crop diversification in Vietnam).
  
• Evaluating possible risk management tools and programs (crop insurance, income insurance, commodity finance, etc.) that farmers in Asia could adopt to address risks and problems arising from weather disturbances.
  
• Studying the current and potential impacts and the role of China on agricultural trade in the region.
  
• Promoting regional economic integration in the best interests of farmers.