Voices from the field

Voices from the field 1

Morocco: appropriating food sovereignty for markets!

Ali Aznague, Siyada Network

In the Arab region, agriculture is at the heart of neoliberal policies that grant generous financial subsidies to large investors while marginalizing small farmers. The World Trade Organization, major donor institutions (such as the IMF and World Bank), and comprehensive free trade agreements have exacerbated this situation.

In Morocco, agricultural policy consists of two strategic plans aimed at furthering commercial and export-oriented agriculture: “The Green Plan (2008/2018)” and “The Green Generation (2020/2030).” Ironically, the government maintains the concept of “food sovereignty” but strips it of its political and social content. Similarly, agricultural policies in the Arab Republic of Egypt, such as Article 79 of the 2014 Constitution, outline the principles of food sovereignty; yet actual practices follow a market logic rather than the emancipatory potential of food sovereignty.

The situation in the Arab region is becoming increasingly difficult and complex due to rising food prices, the resurgence of counter-revolutionary forces, and the Israeli war of extermination against the Palestinian people. Therefore, there is an urgent need to build a militant agricultural movement against hunger and the commodification of food, and to increase pressure to adopt the actual principles of food sovereignty in both words and actions. The principal slogan of the “Siyada Network in the Arab Region” involves establishing partnership relations with countries of the Global South based on cooperation and breaking away from food dependency.

Voices from the field 2

India’s price support policy

Nandini Jayaram, Karnataka State Farmers Association (KRRS), India

The food shortages India faced in the 1960s led the government to adopt measures to boost agricultural productivity. The Price Support policy began during this time with the establishment of the Agricultural Price Commission in 1965, later reconstituted as the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in March 1985. This body announces the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 23 crops, including cereals, pulses, oilseeds, and commercial crops, before each cropping season. The MSP acts as a safety net for farmers, ensuring they receive a fair price for their crops even if market prices fall below a certain threshold. It also aims to incentivize the production of key crops, preventing shortages of staple food grains. The government procures food grains at MSP for distribution through the Public Distribution System (PDS), subsidizing food for millions. So, it is indeed a policy that promotes food sovereignty.

Farmers’ movements have long demanded that the CACP revise cost calculations by including rentals and interest for owned land and fixed capital assets and adjust for inflation. We also seek a legal guarantee for MSP to prevent purchases below the announced price. Currently, there is no legal backing for MSP, forcing many farmers to sell crops at lower rates due to inadequate procurement mechanisms and market access issues.

Voices from the field 3

Mali’s agricultural orientation law

Ibrahim Sidibe, CNOP, Mali

Mali regulates markets in a general manner, and for the trade of agricultural products this responsibility has been given to the Agricultural Orientation Law (LOA) and the  Agricultural Development Policy (PDA). Enacted in 2006, the LOA covers all economic activities in the agricultural and peri-agricultural sectors, including agriculture, livestock farming, fishing and pisciculture, aquaculture, beekeeping, hunting, forestry, gathering, processing, transportation, trade, distribution, and other agricultural services, as well as their social and environmental functions. It aims to guarantee food sovereignty and to become the engine of the national economy with a view to ensuring the well-being of the populations.

The Agricultural Development Policy (PDA) is based on the accountability of the State, territorial collectivities, agricultural professionals, farmers and civil society. It emphasizes promoting food sovereignty, the reduction of rural poverty, social advancement of women, youth, and men in rural and suburban areas, partnerships and creating common markets within large economic entities at sub-regional, regional, and international levels. Following developments in national and international contexts (such as the Paris Declaration and new modalities of development assistance), Mali and its Technical and Financial Partners have formally committed, since 2008, to a sectoral approach for the agricultural sector. Currently, institutional or organizational sales are not formalized, and we are still in the process of negotiating an appropriate framework.

Voices from the field 4

Spain’s food chain law

Andoni García, COAG, Spain

The Food Chain Law, passed in Spain in 2013, aims to improve the food chain’s functioning by requiring written contracts for producers that include prices. In February 2020, it was amended to mandate that prices paid throughout the food chain, starting with farmers, must legally cover production costs. This change followed protests by agricultural organizations demanding fair prices. In December 2021, the law was further amended to incorporate the EU directive on unfair trading practices and several COAG proposals, achieving significant regulatory elements within the European political framework.

Two key instruments enforce the Food Chain Law: the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA), which collects complaints from farmers and other entities, conducts inspections on price abuse, contract issues, and other abuses, and the Chain Observatory, which conducts price and cost studies across the value chain for each agricultural and livestock production. The 2021 reform also prohibits selling at a loss by large distributors, ensuring products cannot be sold below purchase price. However, the law faces limitations due to competition laws, which prevent collective price negotiation, price fixing, or strict linkage of cost and price studies to contracts. Moreover, the law aims to protect each farmer and livestock breeder individually, not collectively, except for certain exceptions for cooperatives.

Voice from the field 5

Territorial markets in Colombia

Juliana Millán, RENAF, Colombia

In RENAF we have created a campaign to identify territorial markets across the country, enhancing their visibility and combined success. The aim is to understand and share the many different ways in which these diverse markets work, their various forms of association and production, including traditional production that does not need or use agrochemicals. RENAF members and other regional small producers are empowered by access to this information, which has facilitated collective network responses to crises such as COVID-19, empowering territorial markets and enabling their survival, and enhancing ecological food diversity.

Voice from the field 6

Canada’s supply management system

Cathy Holtslander, National Farmers’ Union, Canada

Canada’s supply management system provides stability in the dairy, laying hen (egg), broiler chicken, turkey and hatching egg sectors by controlling the amount produced, preventing shortages, and keeping under-priced imports from being dumped into Canada’s market. A transparent, cost-of-production pricing formula ensures that farmers receive a fair income. As a result, Canada does not experience wide fluctuations in supply and prices – nor the need for massive government subsidies to farmers.

Farm size remains small to moderate, particularly when compared with these commodities in the USA. Each commodity is governed by farmers elected to their provincial marketing board according to provincial regulations under federal framework legislation. Supply management allows farmers to invest in equipment, training, animal husbandry, genetics and land stewardship for the future while requiring them to produce the right amount of product at the right time and meeting quality standards.

The system also insulates dairy, eggs and poultry from currency exchange fluctuations and other shocks that affect export-oriented and import-dependent sectors of the food and farming system. It also avoids competition for the markets of farmers in other countries who are providing food for their own populations.

Export-dependent dairy nations (USA, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina) frequently attack the system in order to get access to Canada’s market. Within Canada, corporate actors attack the system both to force prices paid to farmers below the cost of production (benefiting food manufacturers), and as a bargaining chip to gain concessions for other sectors in trade negotiations.

Some smaller farmers who direct-market would like to see more flexibility in the system. To improve its ability to face these challenges, supply management boards can improve and expand new-entrant mechanisms to provide more affordable access to production quotas, and encourage alternative production systems that promote renewal, resilience and response to consumer desires for diversity, and develop a ‘triple bottom line’ approach to cost of production pricing formulae to ensure environmental and social costs are not externalized.