picture TREVOR LEIGHTON
Alessandra Fava
Food sovereignty, an end to hunger and the rights to land are the main themes of the eleventh World Social Forum. We find the stalls selling rice and millet, between the curtains of Via Campesina and its African versions, as Roppa (the network of 15 African states) and the recent network of networks Paff and many meetings organized by NGOs such as the African Network for the right to ' power. The theme returns when you stop to talk to farmers, who cultivate cotton in Mali and rice in Casamance in southern Senegal, we speak of land rights, the need for aid to buy work tools, expropriations ripping people literally from their land. Phenomenon that is repeated in Mali, such as Mauritania and Senegal.
A network of associations in Africa Western Roppa , which brings together large and small associations and committees of 15 countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone , Cape Verde, Togo, Ghana and Niger) and in Senegal finds its expression in Cncr ( the National Council for coordination and cooperation of the farmers ), is particularly active in disseminating the concept of land rights, sustainability and in particular their right to the cultivation of small plots against the logic of large areas farm. Given that''it is estimated that the population of the 15 states participating in Roppa is 250 million people and the farmers are 80 percent of the population, we represent at least 150 million people ,''the president said, Djibouti Bagna, a Nigerian, one of the tents in the camp of the liveliest World Social Forum. Under the tent, people going, people coming, a schedule of debates and testimony, several meetings of NGOs to strengthen the ties and become a political player ever stronger.
The Forum for associations and networks of farmers is the most unique opportunity to build more bridges, alliances, networks with neighboring peoples, perhaps some hundreds of miles away, but days of travel on roads battered. Unique opportunity because hundreds of people from Ghana and Burkina Faso as the Mali and Mauritania, have traveled in a caravan considerable distances just to get an international appointment.
were particularly poignant testimonies from a panel discussion on expropriation in several African countries. A farmer from Mali said he was beaten until did not leave his land. Gliel'hanno confiscated on the pretext that owns it and has no lease. They always like that''- explains a Senegalese Casamance, the agricultural region south of the country - we also confiscate the land to build a hospital or a post office. Here comes the government of the people with many cards and you hunting. Most of the time the division of land is done orally, in agreements between us peasants from the same village. But now you just will not be in a contract posesso scrittto and throw them all out, you, your home, animals and your family.''
The risk is that the construction of a post office close to the confiscation of more extensions to be given to large multinational agriculture, as happened in East Africa and Latin America. The''myth of industrial agriculture is not dead yet, despite many failures - says the president of honor Roppa , the Senegalese Mamadou Seissokho - We believe the opposite: to preserve the land, seeds originating of a country, the culture of the land, farmers must also remain on small plots. We must preserve and protect agriculture based on small communities and families. Of course we uncomfortable, say no to GMOs, industrialization and experts who are dropped from American or European. We believe that farmers have sufficient knowledge to better manage their land. It should be just that our leaders we were a bit 'more to feel and then you would also find resources and new technologies to improve yields of crops.''
production, nutrition and self-sufficiency are really the key issue of Forum . They have also written young Senegalese, Mauritanian and Mali, encouraged to tell''what is your utopia?''Promoted in a corner five young Europeans. Among the phrases left on large placards reads:''My vision is to see to the elimination of poverty, misery, hunger and wars in Africa.'' ''All this talk about agriculture because we deal with climate change, building a sustainable and above all feed our people - he concludes Sessoukho - So far we have had no state support.''
If in fact the government of President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal boasts of having achieved food self-sufficiency for all Senegalese (12 million) project with Goan (grandly named''The big offensive agriculture for food and abundance''), launched in April 2008 and has distributed within the same project 2 million and 630 thousand tons of seeds, to hear those of Cncr , Goan It cost a fortune (344 billion francs Senegalese approximately 520 million euro) and it did not work at all. The''40 percent of the seed went to the farmers, it also allowed the president - says the National Treasurer of Roppa , the Federation of Farmers' Organizations, Abdou Madji Badie, who comes from Casamance in southern the country - most part of the seed lots are over the traders, were sold in neighboring countries or even fell into the pot, which means that if someone is literally eaten. There was sufficient consultation, the program has worked minimally. The good news is that the project has shown that at least the government is sensitive to the topic. It is hoped that in future our administrators know better involve our organizations because we are a network with thousands of associations and village committees. That is why our slogan is''to feed the family and appoggiamola Senegal invest in agriculture. No industrial agriculture. It seems clear enough.''
One answer is for farmers while the fair trade, especially for those who produce non-perishable goods. The Fairtrade Foundation distributes the Forum a dossier in which he denounces the fact that the United States, China, India and the EU put together have paid over the past nine years, from Doha to date, more than $ 41 billion in subsidies to their cotton producers (31 EU and the U.S. only), by unfair competition in tens of millions of small cotton producers in West Africa. ''The only way to survive in the market for us is to sell the cotton to the market where joint Senegalese give us 270 francs per kilo (40 euro cents) - says Demba Mballo 35, a farmer who grows cotton in the region of Koldha in southern Senegal - On the normal market we just like the terrible crisis of 2007 when Senegalese francs per kilo from 195 to 185 are passed. Now it's a bit 'better, we are at 205 but not enough to feed a family. If this continues it will end the cultivation of cotton will disappear from Africa.''
In fact even now China, the largest producer in the world, you take a slice of the global production of 32.5, The U.S. 34 percent, 18 percent in India. Demba has two wives and five children and live in his village in the department of Seregnari Villegarà, also cultivated millet and rice. ''The farmers are the last to gain something - says - just as we think we get paid a pittance, fiber market value of cotton has tripled.'' A farmer from Mali, Moussa Doumbia, 45, 9 children, says that life has become increasingly difficult:''Sometimes I can not sleep. The situation is unbearable. I make three tons of cotton a year and I can only scrape together a little 'more than $ 300. The price of cotton not enough for farmers to survive and so also cultivate peanuts, rice and cabbage to feed my family and I do help by two brothers emigrated to Côte d'Ivoire and Spain.''. For Mali, cotton is a key part of keeping economic accounts for 40 percent of farm income and provides employment to two and a half million people.
To build a critical mass, networks of farmers' associations have realized that we must broaden the base. So last October did the network of networks in Africa, Paff ( Pan-African Farmers Forum ) is a federation'' Pan-Africanism which brings together five regional and national networks of farmers, including Roppa - Joshua said Di Salvo, director of information campaigns to outstretched hands, the Forum in Dakar - in practice, African farmers are being organized from the bottom, come together in a logical order to become a pan-African party against strong African Union (AU).''
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