small scale farming

La Via Campesina welcomes UN preliminary recognition of peasant’s rights

The international peasant’s movement La Via Campesina welcomes the preliminary UN recognition of the role and rights of peasants and small farmers in the world. The Fourth Session of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council, who met in Geneva on 25-29 January 2010, adopted the report of the Advisory Committee titled “Discrimination in the Context of Right to Food” (A/HRC/AC/4/2). This report describes the marginalisation of peasants, rural women and traditional fishing, hunting, (...) read

date of on-line publication : 15 February 2010

Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net)

Farmers ’jury’ voices agricultural research concerns

Agricultural researchers should spend more time improving local seeds and less time developing hybrids from "outside", farmers in West Africa have said. And research should broaden from narrow concerns such as improving a single crop to wider studies that take into account the environment in which farmers operate, they said. The 50 farmers and fishermen were delivering their verdict on the future of food and agricultural research during one of two citizens’ juries — decision-making tools (...) read

date of on-line publication : 5 February 2010

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Jury of Indian farmers to pass judgement on agricultural science

A ’citizens jury’ of marginalised farmers in southern India will this week give their verdict on the future of research on food and agriculture. From 1-5 December, the jury will hear the testimony of special witnesses from government departments, agricultural universities, and farmers and consumers organisations. The jury will then make recommendations about how to make agricultural science better at serving the needs of the poor and marginalised majority. Read (...) read

date of on-line publication : 17 December 2009

Coordination SUD

Mass retailing in the South: impacts on subsistence farming and farm workers, regulations, and mobilisation within civil society

DIRECTIONS FOR USE Context of the study: In the last two decades the liberalisation trend in most economies has led to an increase in big companies’ power. The concentration of multinational companies in mass retailing has strengthened this sector’s power (“Buyer power”) over all the other actors in all sectors of the economy: industries and especially peasants and agricultural workers. Coordination Sud, a platform for French international solidarity organisations, functions on the basis of (...) read

date of on-line publication : 8 August 2007