16 Days of Global Action on Agroecology
partners across the globe today launched the 16 Days of Global Action on
Agroecology 2020, with the theme “Fight for Food Systems Change!”,
as rural peoples confront the challenges of the hunger crisis brought on by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Agroecology is an annual campaign from October 1 to 16 aimed at promoting
agroecology as an alternative to chemical-based corporate agriculture and as a
way towards achieving people’s food sovereignty. Now on its 6th year, the
global campaign this year focuses on the plight of rural peoples during the
pandemic, and their demands and aspirations for fundamental changes in the food
and agricultural system.
“The COVID-19 crisis confirmed
what many rural communities around the world already know – that the prevalent
food systems dominated by big profit-seeking interests are failing. There is an
urgent need for a radical shift on how, for instance, we are producing food.
Agroecology provides us a viable way to produce food in a manner that protects
the environment and promotes the rights of farmers and other direct food
producers,” said PANAP executive director Sarojeni Rengam.
Rengam stressed that
agroecological approaches to food production can only be truly sustainable and
beneficial if pursued in the context of thoroughgoing agrarian reform and
long-term rural development. “Agroecology can only thrive when land and other
productive resources needed to produce food are unencumbered by corporate or
landlord monopoly control,” Rengam pointed out.
Several activities will be held in
various countries in the Asia Pacific region, Latin America, North America, and
Africa as part of the 16 Days of Global Action. These include trainings on
agroecology; rural youth leadership trainings; a youth and agroecology webinar;
seed exhibitions; bike tours; relief mission for migrant farmworkers;
indigenous peoples’ harvest festival & knowledge exchange; home gardening
workshops; a plantation protest; village-level educational discussions; a rally
vs. an anti-farmer bill; a farmers’ forum on food and rights; youth-led
traditional paddy and millet cultivation; and a students’ conference, among
others.
On October 14, PANAP will hold an
online launch of the book “Pandemic of hunger: Asserting people’s rights amid
COVID-19.” On October 15, Rural Women’s Day, there will be local rural women’s
festivals and an online Rural Women’s Speak-Out hosted by the Asian Rural
Women’s Coalition. The campaign will culminate on October 16 with the
#Hungry4Change Digital Farmers’ Caravan, a 13 hour-long online live broadcast
rally to mark the “World Hunger Day”, together with the People’s Coalition on
Food Sovereignty (PCFS) and Asian Peasant Coalition (APC).
Initiated by the APC, World Hunger
Day is the counterpoint of food sovereignty advocates to the official World
Food Day that commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) every October 16.
A social media campaign using the
hashtags #AgroecologyNow, #Hungry4Change and #FoodAndRightsNow will also
highlight the demands of rural peoples throughout the 16 Days of Global Action.
Participating organisations
include: Bangladesh Research Centre for Indigenous Knowledge or BARCIK;
Instituto Politekniko Tomas Katari (Bolivia); Coalition of Cambodian Farmer
Community or CCFC; Khoj Society for People’s Education (Pakistan); MTKP
(Guatemala); Society for Rural Education and Development SRED, Kudumbam, and
Andhra Pradesh Vyavsaya Vruthidarula Union or APVVU (India); SERUNI
(Indonesia); Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum or ESAFF
(Kenya); Tenaganita and ARROW (Malaysia); Women’s Rehabilitation Centre or
WOREC (Nepal); Peasant Movement of the Philippines or KMP, Union of
Agricultural Workers or UMA, Artist Alliance for Genuine Land Reform and Rural
Development or SAKA, MASIPAG, Amihan, Gabriela, and Kadamay-Pandi
(Philippines); Vikalpani National Women’s Federation (Sri Lanka); Research
Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development CGFED (Vietnam); Young
Volunteers for the Environment or JVE (Ivory Coast); PAN Africa (Senegal);
Zambia Social Forum; Youth for Food Sovereignty; Asian Rural Women’s Coalition;
People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty; Asian Peasant Coalition; and PAN North
America.
For
inquiries, contact elnard.arellano@panap.net and ilang.quijano@panap.net
