Plea to support Third World farmers

For A Change, June-July, 2004

'AGRICULTURE USED to have a very high standing in the development plans of Western countries, but over the last 10 years this has been lost,' maintained Christie Peacock, Chief Executive of the British-based non-governmental organization Farm Africa.

Dr Peacock was speaking at a public forum at the IC centre in London in April, hosted by the International Farmers Dialogue--a programme of IC. She appealed for greater status to be accorded to small farmers across Africa.

Farm Africa has produced an 'agenda and rationale' for investing in African agriculture and is busy lobbying DFID (the UK's Department for International Development). A new document, Reaching the Poor--a call to action, argues the case for investing in smallholder farmers in Africa. Peacock said that it was understandable that governments gave large sums in direct food aid during a crisis but it made more sense in the long term to enable poor farmers to increase their production.

2003 INDEX

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