Farmers’ Manifesto : the 26th January 2003

CNRC (Senegal)

On the 26th January 2003, 20 000 Senegalese farmers held a meeting at the Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium in Dakar. This meeting and the manifesto it published deserves a second look.

On this the 26th January 2003, we, the representative farmers’ organisations of Senegal united in the National Council for Consultation and Coordination for Country People (Conseil National de Concertation et de Coordination des Ruraux CNCR), held a meeting at the Léopold Sédar Senghor Stadium in  Dakar

By this manifesto, unique in the history of Senegal:

-  We want to affirm and strengthen the solidarity of all the farmers of our country. These bonds of solidarity are founded on the social and family values of which we are the bearers. In the past these values have enabled us to ensure the wellbeing of our families and to make our contribution to the economic and social development of Senegal. It is in solidarity that we will assume the same roles for the future of our families and our country. We call on all farmers and on all their organisations to collaborate in this.

-  We make an appeal for equity and solidarity between all the social categories that make up Senegal. Despite the rural exodus and urbanisation, Senegal remains a rural society. Its future is inseparable from that of the farming community. As farmers, we recognise our essential responsibility in the development of our country. It is our duty to ensure the security of food supply for our country. However, we can only assume this responsibility if we receive the support and solidarity of the nation and if we are treated in the same way as the other social categories of the population.

-   We challenge the political authorities.  They have the responsibility to define and put into practice the policies of agricultural and rural development. Family-based farming is in crisis since the end of the 1970’s. The policies of government withdrawal, privatisation and liberalisation practised by the NPA, the devaluation of the FCFA and the PASA, have not enabled a lasting revival of Senegalese agriculture. Poverty and food insecurity have become generalised phenomena in the countryside. More than 70% of country people live below the extreme poverty level. Farming productivity is still weak, not because of our inability to improve our production systems, but because of the low level of remuneration for our work and the lack of investment in the infrastructures and public services in the countryside: schools, dispensaries, roads, clean drinking water and insufficient and deficient services. We are more and more forced into rural exodus. Our school-educated children can no longer stay in the village. The reality is that at the heart of the Senegalese nation we have become second class citizens.

-   When we created the CNCR in 1993, we decided to refuse this situation and to struggle to change it. We have always tried to enter into constructive dialogue with the political authorities. Our desire is to take charge of our lives and to participate in the decisions that affect our future.

We, farmers and members of the CNCR, demand that the state enter into open, frank and sincere negotiations on the following points:

-   Aid for country dwellers suffering from drought until the cereal harvest of October 2003.

-   The evaluation of the system of commercialisation « carreau usine », its improvement and the implication of the farmers’ organisations in the privatisation of SONACOS.

-   The relaunch of the production of peanuts which, for the time-being, is the only important source of income for country dwellers and for the growth of the national economy.

-   The review of all the on-going projects in the countryside, to catch up in the unacceptable delays in their launch and in the use of aid for development.

-   The review of the strategy in the fight against poverty.

-   The elaboration of a policy for the development of agriculture and the countryside, based on a long term vision of the countryside and family-based farming. The development of agriculture and non-farming activities is the only lasting strategy for the reduction of rural poverty for our country.

In which case we insist on the following points:

-   The long term vision for the country side must give priority to the modernisation of family-based farming and to the development of non-agricultural activities. We, small farmers, are not opposed to other ways of farming. However, we will oppose all forms of public policy that do not give priority to the small farmer.

-   The participation of farming organisations in the elaboration of a long term vision for agriculture and the country side and to the strategies for putting it into practice.

-   The preparation and the holding of national assizes for the countryside to define a vision and a strategy for the countryside. All the concerned politicians, economists and members of the civil society should be present.

-   The introduction of a law for the orientation of farming and land reform.

-   The reappraisal of the policies of the Economic Monetary Union of West African States (UEMOA). The CNCR was at the origin of the creation of the « Network of Organisations of Farmers and Producers of West Africa “(Réseau des Organisations paysannes et des Producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest, ROPPA). During the last summit of the Union at Dakar we demonstrated our opposition to the common exterior tariff and to the harmonisation of levels of VAT. These decisions favour the massive importation of food products and are a disloyal competition to our farm products on the Union’s market. The next negotiations with the European Union for free trade agreements with the member states of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States)may well make this situation worse. We can not accept this policy while the countries of the North continue to subsidise their agriculture, and impose quotas and their standards of sanitation and fertilisers on all imports. Our states have the right to protect their familial farms and food sovereignty. They have the duty to create the conditions for and support   the modernisation of our farming

We, small farmers meeting at the Leopold Sedar Senghor stadium, call on all Senegalese farmers and all the farmers of West Africa to organise ourselves and defend our interests.