Monitoring structural changes in agriculture to inform policy dialogue: how farmers’ organizations can contribute

Agriculture is at the nexus of global challenges: long-standing issues of food insecurity and poverty are still unresolved while new issues such as climate change, resource scarcity and loss of biodiversity are emerging as global threats.
Fears over food availability and recent trends in global agricultural investments have renewed policy debate on the relevance and potential of smallholder and family agriculture compared to other farm models. Beyond polarized debates, the situation on the ground is increasingly complex, with strong inter-relations between different forms of agriculture. Rapid structural changes are occurring in the way farming systems are organized and relate to the natural resource base, to rural society and to markets.

To a large extent, existing information systems fail to provide a reliable and policy-relevant picture of these different farming systems, the transformations taking place and their implications on food production, employment, income distribution, rural communities and the environment. Farmers’ organizations, policy makers and agricultural development partners often lack the information and analyses they need to formulate evidence-based policies and programmes, in particular on the specific roles and contributions of smallholder and family farmers¹ .

Farmers’ organizations and civil society organizations have called for a better understanding of the dynamics of different farming systems² and launched new initiatives for the recognition of family farming in agricultural, rural development and food security policies. The declaration by the UN General Assembly of an International Year of Family Agriculture in 2014 provides new opportunities in this regard.

The World Agriculture Watch

The World Agriculture Watch (WAW) initiative was established in 2011 in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through an initial partnership between FAO, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) and the French Government, and with the participation of IFAD. WAW seeks to monitor and analyse structural transformations of farming systems and their impacts on development, food security, poverty reduction and natural resource management, in order to inform policy dialogue and formulation.

WAW intends to develop an international platform for knowledge generation and exchange, based on a network of existing local observation units sharing common objectives and approaches. It will work under the governance of a steering committee, including UN specialized institutions such as FAO and IFAD, representatives of farmers’ organizations and regional policy organizations, and will be supported by an international scientific advisory committee of academics and researchers.

Key results at the international level will be: i) adopting a common framework for assessing the different forms of farm organizations, their dynamics, resilience and impacts in relation to the MDGs and other priority challenges; ii) identifying hotspots of transformation; iii) preparing peer-reviewed publications that compare and analyse the diversity and dynamics of agricultural systems; and iv) creating an international platform to share knowledge and information.

At the national level, technical support will be provided to local observation units to implement the common framework. Key results expected are: i) improved awareness of national stakeholders and their partners on transformations and their implications; ii) national observation units that build on existing information sources and data collection initiatives, iii) strengthened national capacities, including those of farmers’ organizations, in using the assessment framework to generate knowledge for evidence-based policy and programs formulation; iv) action-oriented knowledge adapted to different stakeholders.

Compared with similar initiatives, WAW has a number of distinctive features:

• a focus on diversity and structural changes in agriculture, including the specific roles and contributions of smallholder/family farming
• local observations at farm and territorial level, assessing agricultural transformations and their implications on social, economic and environmental aspects
• an inclusive approach, placing farmers at the heart of the process, involving them in the production and analysis of information to improve their capacity to influence policies and programmes
  

Farmers’ Organizations in WAW

Strong involvement and specific capacity development activities shall strengthen the capacities of farmers’ organizations to generate and use knowledge to influence policies and programmes. FOs would be involved in: i) the overall governance to provide directions and priorities of work; ii) the development of the methodological framework and the selection of priority indicators for assessment; iii) the production of knowledge to characterize on-going transformations at farm and territorial levels; and iv) collective analysis and multi-stakeholder dialogue to develop policy options.

WAW will work as much as possible with already existing watch systems, including those led by farmers’ organizations. These systems will benefit from capacity development programmes that offer tools, training and peer-to-peer exchanges to reinforce capacities to monitor and compare agricultural systems and their transformations.

Benefits expected for Farmers’ Organizations and their development partners at global level and within local observation units would be: i) better awareness of agricultural transformations and their impacts, ii) access to training and tools to monitor and compare agricultural systems, to feed policy formulation and the design of agricultural development programs, iii) participating in the development and dissemination of action oriented knowledge on diversity of farming systems, their contributions to sustainable development, transformations taking place and related policy options; iv) a forum for dialogue with different stakeholders on agricultural transformations and the role of smallholder/family agriculture.

Objective of the side event

This side event is part of the consultative process to develop WAW. Its objective is to engage in a dialogue with the Farmers’ Forum participants, IFAD staff and partners on how WAW could better serve farmers, agricultural policy makers and the institutions mandated to support the development of smallholder and family farmers.

16:30	Presentation of WAW A. J. Müller, Assistant Director-General. Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, FAO P. Caron, Director General in charge of Research and Strategy, CIRAD
17:00	Panel presentations of on-going related initiatives Representative from ROPPA (Réseau des organisations paysannes et de producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) E. Penunia, Secretary General, Asian farmers' association for sustainable rural development (AFA) A. da Costa Lunas, Secretary General, COPROFAM and Vice-President and Secretary of International Relations, CONTAG C. Seré, Chief Development Strategist, IFAD
17:40	Open discussion
18:20	Synthesis and conclusion

 

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