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world. And yet, on this land peasants and indigenous families

and communities produce slightly less than half of the world’s

food. The most secure and efficient way to overcome hunger

around the world is to return the land to the peasants, the food

producers. Food sovereignty guarantees basic human rights, of

which the right to land and water is one of them. It defends the

needs of all who work the land and produce food, the farmers

and campesinos. It therefore calls for an integral agrarian reform.

Access to and control over productive resources such as land,

water, seeds and finance, is a critical part of an integral agrarian

reform which entails the democratization of land, and the crea-

tion of direct employment, housing and food production. This

should not be limited to the redistribution of land, but should

entail the ceding of full rights over lands. Such rights should also

recognize the legal rights of indigenous populations over their

territories, guarantee fishing communities’ access to and control

over fisheries and ecosystems, and ensure the right of access to

and control over livestock migration routes and pastures.

LVC is working to create local markets for farmers, as part of

food sovereignty. Many scholars recognize the importance of food

sovereignty as the only lasting alternative way to eliminate many

forms of hunger and reduce poverty through local economic

development. Food sovereignty achieves such development in

rural areas by creating and localizing circuits of production and

consumption, where family farmers sell their produce and buy

their necessities in local towns. This creates conditions for lasting

development through generating local employment and enabling

farmers to make a living. In contrast, if what farmers produce is

exported, fetching international market (low) prices, and almost

everything they buy is imported, all profits are extracted from the

local economy and contribute only to distant economic develop-

ment. Thus food sovereignty, with its emphasis on local markets

and economies, is essential to fighting hunger and poverty.

Some national governments have adopted food sovereignty

oriented policies and laws to promote a better life for peasants

and to correct food import deficits. Such policies have entailed

the recognition of peasant farming and the protection of peas-

ants from external market factors by protecting national markets

from dumping, hoarding and speculation by global corpora-

tions, and introducing systems to guarantee fair prices for

peasant food production. But subsidies paid to family farmers

to keep them on the land and support vibrant rural economies,

and subsidies that assist with soil conservation, the transition

to sustainable farming practices and direct marketing to local

consumers, are good. Some governments have reoriented their

agricultural research and extension systems to support farmer-

to-farmer agroecological innovation and sharing managed by

farmer organizations as the keystone to up-scaling agroecol-

ogy. Public awareness campaigns to support farm-to-city direct

marketing of ecological production through farmers’ markets,

linking rural and urban cooperatives, are critical.

The current debates on climate change effects, the food crisis and

the need to safeguard the planet against further destruction, either

through curbing greenhouse gas emissions or reverting from a

capitalist mode of agricultural production to food sovereignty, all

provide an opportune moment for family farming to amplify the

need for ecologically sound and sustainable agricultural practices.

Many studies have shown how the yields of improved varieties

continue to plateau under industrial agriculture, in some cases

declining with slight temperature changes common under climate

change. Thus, agricultural and food systems are confronted with

an ecological and environmental sustainability crisis to which

only food sovereignty provides a lasting solution. Food sover-

eignty has emerged as an alternative to the industrial food regime

and promotes and amplifies family farming. The declaration of

2014 as the International Year of Family Farming by the United

Nations is an opportunity to redirect agriculture towards a model

of food sovereignty which will generate employment, provide

healthy food and respect natural resources.

It is imperative that during this International Year of Family

Farming critical steps are taken and that commitment should

be mobilized so that policies to protect and to strengthen

peasant family farming might be implemented. Of the national

governments, we therefore demand that they:

• end resources grabbing: land, water and seeds

• promote policies which guarantee food sovereignty,

biodiversity and peasants’ seeds, and that they improve

access to land and water

• recognize peasant rights regarding the production,

reproduction and exchange of their traditional seeds,

guarantees of agrobiodiversity and peasants’ autonomy

• increase the support and public investments for peasant-

based production, and guarantee markets and equitable trade.

At international level, we urge governments to apply theGuidelines

on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and

Forests, and other key decisions from the Committee on World

Food Security, and that they adopt the UnitedNations Declaration

of Peasants’ Rights. Additionally, we urge that they implement

the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food

and Agriculture, and that they end negotiations for any new

commercial agreements, particularly the Trans-Atlantic Trade and

Investment Partnership or the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

This year should be used to start a global redirection of

agriculture towards a model of food sovereignty which will

generate employment, provide healthy food and respect natural

resources. We call for the creation of an alliance between coun-

tryside and city, that it might revive the peasants’ dignity and

their great contribution to food production. We need important

political changes, both for our tables and for our fields.

Local communities increase awareness toward consumption of small grains

Image: Nelson Mudzingwa (ZIMSOFF)

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