Implementing the GCARD Roadmap: Collective Actions by 2014

Statement by Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj, India,
on behalf of smallholder farmers at the
Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2),
Punta del Este, Uruguay, 1 November 2012
 
First & foremost, we thank you and your team for organizing GCARD2012 summit & giving farmers the opportunity to participate in this process and deliberations. There are visible positive changes happening and we are hopeful for more as we move forward.
 
There is great distress and disgust amongst the approx. 1 billion small farmers of the world. It is not hard to fathom the cause of this distress. Total sickening inequality in the world; 100 richest people of the world have control of wealth of 1 trillion US$, which is more than the combined worth of 1 billion small farmers. It is absolutely unacceptable and agricultural research, development & better policies are the way forward.
 
The source of funding leads to research of a kind that in turn leads to actions on the ground; undesirable actions at times. Farmers must have a more participatory role in the CRP activities and objectives so as to be equitable partners and not just have a symbolic presence. We need structured transparent processes involving farmers.
 
The task before us is tough; urban society, which controls policymaking, focusses on little else other than farmers’ being suppliers of cheap food; it is much hypocrisy and public posturing.
 
Every government, system and all institutions wants to increase agricultural production while every farmer wants to increasingly become self-sufficient meaning farming becomes profitable. These are divergent goals. The irony of the matter is that farmers, those expected to feed the world, are the ones who are hungry & poor themselves today. Only when agriculture becomes profitable for small farmers, especially in rainfed areas, can we possibly increase production, end hunger and poverty, and not otherwise. 
 
Therefore, we farmers urge you all to change your priorities to first make agriculture a profitable profession. To achieve the objective to end hunger and poverty, to focus research on CDR (Complex Diverse Risk-Prone) agriculture, some of our suggestions are as follows:
 
Key to any agriculture revolution is revitalizing extension services to transfer existing knowledge in the laboratories onto the farm. As we optimize input application, we will reduce use of chemicals and pesticides.
 
There is a yield difference in the best and the worst farm in the village; there is yield difference between the best farm in the village and the research centre. If we can bridge these gaps, then a lot of our problems can be solved.
 
More research is required on incorporating organic practices in the mainstream. It should also necessarily supplement farm income. For any environmentally sustainable idea to become an acceptable common practice, it first must be an economically viable practice in the immediate term.
 
There seems to be a loss of emphasis on animal husbandry and aquaculture research, which form an integral part of the small family farmer set-up. Please devote more energy to this vital sector.
 
Resources are limited for most developing countries and also individual small family farms. Problems of developing countries are far more critical than those of developed countries. Success elsewhere cannot be replicated. It is important for vulnerable societies and countries to incorporate new technology as a resource-liberating mechanism as a way forward. We require a marriage of science and tradition to achieve our objectives.
 
Most of the small farmers today are doing farming for lack of other opportunities. Only residual talent is left to work on the farm today; by making agriculture remunerative, we will be able to retain the best youth in farming.  It is good that research is being now focussed on post-harvest opportunities.  
 
There are a lot of success stories of good practices and innovation happening on small farms in the world. These needs to be documented and collected information disseminated, as is starting to be done at APAARI.
 
2012 is being celebrated as the year of the cooperatives. We miss them here today. You must engage with the cooperatives for the sake of small farmers as the way forward.
 
The list should be considered a beginning & not exhaustive. We appreciate the good work of the scientist community and once again thank the organizers for this august gathering of minds. We have hope of a better future. Finally, we request that, in the next GCARD, 25% of the participants should be farmers themselves.