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This body will promote concrete activities around Family Farming as an “opportunity” to promote a shift in the agriculture development model; associations from Colombia and Switzerland are also moving toward that direction.
Several Ecuadorian civil society organizations have joined forces to create a national support group for the International Year of Family Farming 2014. This meeting point has its origin in the Ecuadorian society and opens an interesting way of self-organization on the way to increase the incidence of the campaign in Latin America. Undoubtedly an important first step on the path towards achieving the objectives of the IYFF 2014.
Civil organizations that are part of the initiative IYFF 2014 met in Quito the July 12: MCCH, RELACC, CAAP and CAFOLIS, as well as a member of the Multinational and Intercultural Conference on Food Sovereignty (COPISA) and a delegate of the Bureau of Public Policy. The meeting brought together the bodies that are supporting the IYFF 2014 in the South American country, with other organizations that have recently decided to back the initiative.
At the meeting, the participants presented a summary of their experiences to support family farmers in Ecuador -ongoing for many years-, and their motivation to participate in the IYFF 2014 as “an opportunity to develop these forms of production and to push a shift in the agriculture development paradigm”.
They recognized not only the importance of the IYFF 2014 declaration, but also the need to promote specific activities in each country through work plans, for what it will be required some talent and resources.
The support group considered “fundamental” the participation of food producers in the IYFF 2014, especially those who grow rice and maize, two of the main crops in Ecuador. In fact, farmers themselves should be, without any doubt, the real protagonists of the International Year.
Finally, the national support group agreed to entrust the Andean Center for Social Leadership Training, CAFOLIS, with the resposibility to prepare a project proposal on Peasant Family Farming in Ecuador. Once the project (the idea of IYFF) is realized and got down, it will be the moment to start looking for the necessary funding.
The World Rural Forum welcomes this news with great joy and want to express its support for the IYFF support group in Ecuador. Agricultural and civil associations from other countries, such as Colombia and Switzerland, are also making progress in creating their own support groups. All these initiatives represent a significant advance in the team work and in the commitment of organizations worldwide on Family Farming.
As the global coordinator of the campaign, the WRF expresses that the path opened in Ecuador, where civil associations have taken the decision to self-organize around the IYFF 2014, can be traveled by civil and agrarian organizations worldwide. The more similar support groups, the more effective will the incidence be in each country. That will be the way to get better national policies in favor of Family Farming and to gain greater prominence for the overall message of an effective model for Feeding the world, caring for the Earth.