Rome, the world farmers’ meeting from Monday 17 June
The aim of the meeting is to provide a lively and open platform for all to discuss the future
ROME – It will be held from Monday 17 to Friday 21 June in Italy, at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) strong>, the annual meeting of the World Farmers’ Organization (Wfo/Oma). The meeting #Wfo2024, the organizers report in a note, will be dedicated to the theme ‘Tomorrow’s harvest’(‘Harvesting Tomorrow: Farming Shaping the Future of Agriculture and Food Production ‘) and will represent a meeting opportunity for 300 participants from more than 60 countries, with farmers of all sizes and from all fields, including family-sized ones, young people and women leaders in the sector. Agricultural organizations and cooperatives from all over the world will be present, as well as other stakeholders such as government representatives, multilateral institutions, universities, researchers, private sector companies, civil society groups and financial institutions.
The objective of the meeting is to provide a lively platform open to all to dialogue about the future, exchange experiences and knowledge and promote collaboration between stakeholders in the agricultural sector, to in order to support the development of more sustainable and resilient global agri-food systems. FAO and WFO/OMA have been working together since 2014, the International Year of Family Farming. The collaboration was formalized in 2018 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, renewed in January 2023. As part of this mutual support agreement, FAO enthusiastically welcomed the proposal to host the annual meeting of the World Farmers’ Organization at its headquarters in Rome. “We are grateful to FAO for the decision to open its doors to the World Farmers’ Organization. It confirms the importance that we mutually attribute to our collaboration and offers an opportunity to family farmers and their organized structures coming from from all over the world to visit the heart of the global political dialogue on Food and Agriculture” said the president of the WFO, Arnold Puech d’Alissac.
Agriculture, we further read, is that portion of food systems responsible for the production of food, fibre, ornamental products and fuel for heating systems. Farmers are people, families and communities who have dedicated their lives and those of their family members to the production of food, fiber, ornamental products and fuel for heating systems around the world. A complex job that implies responsibility and requires solutions that farmers today develop independently. The biggest difference between industrial and family agriculture is that in the second category the economic burden and entrepreneurial risk are on the shoulders of individuals, rather than in the hands of stock markets.
Farmers are the people in food systems and, as human beings and professionals with a wealth of knowledge and experience that is passed down from generation to generation, they are able to identify bottom-up practices and solutions that are effective in increasing the efficiency levels of global agricultural production. This includes a more rational use of natural resources in challenging environmental contexts, preserving soil health and productivity and significantly contributing to global food security. While farmers are well equipped to implement regenerative practices at the local level, food systems are much more complex realities, where simple food production is only part of the equation. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt an approach focused on the entire value chain to co-create solutions. Therefore, it is essential to decentralize the power of the actors at the center of the food value chain and promote a participatory in the creation of solutions.