Call for action from Bamako  :

 For a better future for peasant farmers

On the eve of the opening of the World Social Forum in Bamako , on January 18^th, a special day was organised in the city to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Bandung conference. The result was a “Call for action from Bamako ” submitted to the participating organisations for signature. It consists of ten chapters. The following concerns the chapter on peasant farmers.

 In the area of agriculture based on peasant farming, there are firstly the medium and long term objectives associated with food sovereignty. They are geared to both the national, international, multilateral (WTO) and bilateral levels (EPAs,  partnership agreements negotiated between the ACP countries and the European Union). Secondly, at the national level, these objectives concern price policy, agricultural markets, structural policies and access to the means of production for farmers - in the first place access to land. In the very short term, this year it will be necessary to block the finalisation of the Doha Round. This would pave the way for a refusal to conclude the Economic Partnership Agreements. In this context two lines of action are proposed: ensure the ways and means to enforce food sovereignty, and as a prerequisite, bring about the failure of the Doha Round and the EPAs.

 1)     Proposals for the enforcement of food sovereignty:

 Food sovereignty is the right that every State (or group of states) should have to determine its national agricultural policy and the part it should play in the world market. It also implies the right to take protective action against imports, the right to subsidise its farmers, whilst banning all exports of farm products below the total average production cost (exclusive of direct or indirect subsidies upstream or downstream). Food sovereignty is the lever that should enable all countries to regain their national sovereignty in all areas. It is also instrumental in the advancement of democracy, because it requires the strong involvement of all the various stakeholders in the food and agriculture sector in identifying means and objectives, first of all those of peasant farmers. Food sovereignty also implies regulatory measures at the national, sub-regional and international level.

-          At the national level

 The State must guarantee peasant farmers access to the means of production and first of all to land. The promotion of large scale commercial agriculture, the buying up of land by  transnational companies and  bourgeois middle classes (for instance civil servants) to the detriment of small peasant farmers must be stopped. It is therefore necessary to facilitate investment in family farms and to encourage local processing in order to make products increasingly attractive to consumers. The access to land for all the world’s farmers should be recognised as a fundamental right. Its implementation requires appropriate land and property governance and sometimes also agrarian reform.

 To enrol consumers in urban areas in the battle for food sovereignty, three lines of action should be followed:

 -          to regulate the dealings of shopkeepers and tradesmen which penalise  farmers and consumers;

 -          to run information campaigns among consumers to raise their awareness of the immense harm to domestic agriculture and to the national economy caused by the dependence on imported products, which are virtually the only ones on sale in for instance West African supermarkets;

 -          to increase prices on imported agricultural  products by raising customs tariffs gradually – so as not to penalise consumers with poor purchasing power. They should be provided with coupons allowing them to buy local food stuffs at the initial going price, as is now done in the U.S. , India and Brazil , until productivity gains enable local farmers to reduce their production costs and sell their goods at lower prices.

 -          At the sub-regional level:

 Regional political integration is imperative for small nations in the South to fully regain their sovereignty and first of all their food sovereignty. Reforms of existing regional institutions will consequently be necessary, notably of the Economic and Monetary Union of West African States (UEMOA) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), too dependent at present of various megapowers.

 -          At the international level

 Put pressure on the United Nations to have the right to food recognised as a fundamental right, as defined by The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Pact on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1996. At this level four instruments governing international trade in farm products should be introduced in order to enforce food sovereignty:

 -          Efficient import protection, based on variable taxes to ensure fixed entry prices, designed to guarantee minimum domestic agricultural prices and safeguard farmers’ investments and bank loans, since customs duties alone will not provide sufficient protection, when world prices fluctuate widely, their instability being further aggravated by fluctuations in the exchange rates;

 -          Abolition of all forms of dumping through a ban on all exports at prices below the total national average production cost (exclusive of direct or indirect subsidies);

 -          Mechanisms for international co-ordination of supply management to prevent structural overproduction and minimise cyclical overproduction leading to the collapse of farm prices;

 -          Withdrawal of agriculture from the WTO and handing over the regulation of international trade in agricultural products   to a UN institution,  possibly the FAO. The organisation should be reformed along the lines of the tripartite structure of the ILO (the International Labour Organisation). This would permit representatives of farmers’ unions (FIPA and Via Campesina) to take part in the regulatory work alongside representatives of Governments and agribusiness companies (which already are at work in the wings, to put pressure on Government negotiators).

2)     Short term proposals to block the Doha Round and the Economic Partnership Agreements:

 An important lesson learnt from the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong was that Brazil and India , together with the G-20, have distanced themselves from the interests of Third World populations and proven to be staunch promoters of neo-liberal globalisation. Since the Doha Round is negotiated on the basis of a “single undertaking”, there are ways to make it fail. The international civil society, and first and foremost farmers’ organisations in the North and in the South, could demonstrate through media campaigns that many subsidies, of the Green Box in particular, are more powerful dumping tools than the official and explicit export subsidies. This will increasingly be the case from 2014 and on, when such subsidies are due to be eliminated.

 To download the full document (french) in PDF format, click here.

Maurice Oudet.