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Farmer Exchanges are a major and ongoing
activity among SANFEC members, designed to accelerate South Asian
grassroots initiatives for sustainable food production and resource
management in tune with our ecological and cultural concerns. Over the
last few years there have been farmer exchanges between Bangladesh and
India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, Nepal and India,
Nepal and Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India
amongst others. These have triggered new and comparative understanding
of the existing commonalities among the farming communities and have
accelerated the spread of ecological and biodiversity-based
agriculture in South Asia. Farmers from other Asian countries as well
as from Canada have visited SANFEC member organisations.
SANFEC has also pioneered in South Asia
a new approach to creating mutual understanding amongst farming
communities and raising the voice of farmers in a process of policy
dialogue. For a number of years, SANFEC members have organised
Biodiversity Festivals and Caravans with farmers to reclaim and
celebrate the diverse biological wealth of South Asian Communities.
Over 50,000 people participated in a biodiversity festival in the
Pabna District (1999) and over 100,000 people participated in the
Farmer and Fishers Biodiversity Festival in Cox’s Bazaar (2001) in
Bangladesh. Over 6,000 women farmers participated in the 1999
Biodiversity Festival in the Medak District of Andhra Pradesh, India,
organized directly by women’s self-help groups, with support from the
Deccan Development Society and SANFEC. This gave birth to the annual
Mobile Biodiversity Festivals of the Deccan Development Society which
have dialogued with over 200,000 farmers since 2000 and in the process
have created the Agrobiodiversity Plan for the Indian National
Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. Another SANFEC sponsored
festival took place in Sri Lanka in 1999: farmers of Bangladesh,
Nepal, Pakistan and India started from their respective localities and
countries and travelled to the southern tip of India on a South
Asian Farmers’ Caravan for Peace and Harmony before sending a
delegation to the Millenium Harvest of Biodiversity in Sri Lanka, in
which thousands of farmers and local communities participated.
SANFEC recognises that there is a need
to go beyond the farming communities to build solidarity with other
social groups working on issues of culture, human rights and social
justice. Traditional folk singers, cultural activists, poets,
painters, and creative writers have been strong allies of
environmental and social movements and have played significant roles
in awareness building in their own societies. SANFEC member
organisations build solidarity with these segments of civil society
through cultural and spiritual activities that communicate the message
of ecology, peace and human values that emerge from farming
lifestyles. These activities help cultural actors and leaders of
secular spiritual movements to disseminate the message strongly,
widely and creatively.
The mobilisation of large numbers of
farmers in rural areas through the Festivals and Caravans also created
opportunities and spaces for farmers to speak to politicians and
policy makers. The festivals and caravans created a celebratory space
for dialogue on the possibility of demanding greater accountability
for policies that undermine the interests of the farming communities.
Policy makers participated because they realised the importance of
being a part of the debates and discussions carried out by these
significantly large numbers of people and constituents.
SANFEC has organised dialogues with
small farmers engaged in organic agriculture in Canada. The experience
of SANFEC suggests that farmer appreciation of the value of
agricultural biodiversity and ecological agriculture provides a frame
of reference for identifying the common elements and the concerns that
link communities of farmers all over the world. In 2002, SANFEC made a
significant effort to engage with Canadian farmers and farm
organisations on these issues. This resulted in the visit of a group
of Canadian organic farmers to India for a Multi- City Dialogue in
India which was participated by farmers, scientists, labour unions,
politicians, media persons, academicians, civil society activists and
policy makers. The dialogue has also given SANFEC a great deal of
confidence in the value of North-South farmer exchanges and their
potential to inform debates about the internationalisation of
agriculture and food security. The implication of SANFEC work with
farmers is, therefore, local, national, regional and global.
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