Farmers join international committee to promote co-operatives

27 Feb 2013

An international committee that promotes the interests of co-operatives has welcomed membership of the World Farmers’ Organisation.

The WFO has joined COPAC — the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives — which is a co-ordinating committee of global co-operative action which has representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; International Co-operative Alliance; International Labour Organization; and United Nations (UN)

Members work together on equal terms to promote and co-ordinate sustainable co-operative development by promoting and raising awareness on co-operatives, holding policy dialogues and advocating policies that enable co-operative success, working together on technical co-operation activities and sharing knowledge and information. 

The WFO's mission is to bring together national agricultural producer organisations and agricultural producer co-operative organisations to create policies and advocate on world farmers’ behalf, in order to improve the economic situation and livelihood of producers, their families and rural communities.

Last year, the WFO's General Assembly backed a declaration on co-operatives, which said the enterprise model enables farmers to have a voice.

The agriculture sector represents 40 per cent of the world Gross Domestic Product; it involves five billion hectares of land (1.5 agricultural based and 3.4 breeders and pasture); and engages a labour market of 1.3 billion people. Agriculture is a vital source of livelihood for the 3.4 billion people living in rural areas which constitute approximately 49 per cent of the world population.

As well as difficulties with price volatility in food commodities, financial speculation in agro-food markets and a need for financing and investments, the agricultural sector lacks the concerted action and commitment of policy makers, according to the WFO, to take measures and provide support to protect the sector from the adverse impact of external events and forces that it is vulnerable to. 

Co-operatives play an important role in providing farmers, in particular smallholder farmers, a variety of services such as training in natural resource management and access to information and technology, said the WFO.

The statement from the General Assembly added: "To better achieve their mission and to assure complete independence, rural organisations should be created and managed by farmers themselves based on their own needs. However, given their positive role in a national economic and social context, governments should enact policies to encourage the creation of independent farmers' organisations and co-operatives.

"The policies should be framed so as to target the farmers and the food sector as opposed to the organisations, and address the need to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, to the regulation of relationships in the food supply chain, to facilitating access to information and training and to the adoption of international standards for enhancing international trade."