World Rural Forum - Latin America and the Caribbean
The consulted organisations agree on the objectives proposed in the instrument. Regarding the beneficiaries, it is mentioned that the instrument should not only focus on low-income countries, and suggested not to lose sight of countries categorised as developed, as some countries in Latin America have high levels of inequality. Livestock farmers and pastoralists are family farmers and this category should be reflected in the instrument, stating that in many cases family farmers carry out mixed farming activities, growing crops and raising animals at the same time.
The case of Argentina was mentioned, where livestock farming is a very important sector characterised by its informality in many cases. This means that small informal livestock farmers do not have access to state subsidies, are outside the system, do not keep records and do not have access to veterinary services. Because Argentina is very large and sometimes it is necessary to travel many kilometres to complete formal procedures.
For this reason, they consider that small livestock producers are invisible, at least in the countries that are meat exporters, such as Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay. Small producers make a great contribution to nutrition at the local level, but because of their informal status, they are invisible and do not have access to resources.
This small-scale productivity instrument is considered as a circular economy in which to profit from all aspects of farm production. As an example, the use of manure for composting. There are topics such as gene banks or the use of new technologies, areas in which small family livestock farmers do not have access to information, therefore, it is important that this type of tool gives the opportunity to train small family farmers in innovative and emerging areas to get the most out of their production.
Public policies of the countries in the region sometimes do not respond sufficiently to the needs of family farmers, are weak and obsolete. For this reason, greater focus should be paid to overcome the possible barriers to implementing this voluntary tool.
Another issue highlighted is the financing of small family farmers. It essential to guarantee investment for small producers so that they can respond to unforeseen events such as floods or droughts. It should also include risk policies with a low rate to compensate them in the event of a disaster so that they can recover.
They claim that this tool aims to provide opportunities for family farmers through training and information on productivity development, but many of the family farmers themselves are not really aware of the effect they are having on the local economy through their actions. It would be interesting if they could be shown how their small-scale practices contribute significantly to local and national food supply, food security and nutrition.
It is also important to incorporate other elements into the dialogue, such as new production models, energy consumption models and climate change. It is also important to include more representation from civil society organisations and other farmers' and livestock farmers' organisations in the dialogue.
Finally, they point out that many farmers and pastoralists feel threatened by macro food businesses and extractivist systems of land occupation. Therefore, small farmers are trying to generate better conditions to protect their productions, hand in hand with actions to protect the soil, the environment and regenerative livestock farming.
The “Manual on Agroecological Goat Breeding" produced by INCUPO (Argentina) was shared as an interesting material for consideration in the development of the tool.
Ms. June Pomposo