More than 1000 agricultural producers, a hundred farmers’ organizations and about thirty Cameroonian civil society organizations – gathered from February 24 to 26, 2023 in Esse within the framework of the third edition of the Cameroon Farmers’ Seed Fair (FOSPAC 3) – drafted a declaration in favor of the recognition of a national seed system.
In this statement entitled ” The concretization of peasant seed rights in Cameroon”, Inades-Formation Cameroon, along with the Network of Sustainable Development Actors (RADD) and other civil society organizations, examined the situation of peasant seeds in Cameroon and its impact on the concretization of the right to healthy, sufficient and sustainable food for all in Cameroon.
All these mobilized actors want the governments to respect the commitments made at the international level to guarantee peasant seed rights. This includes:
– The legal consecration of a peasant seed system in its own right, setting up an efficient quality control system adapted to the specific conditions of the peasant seed activity;
– The implementation of existing national legal instruments that help protect peasant seed rights;
– The promotion and facilitation of Farmer Seed Enterprise (FSE) as a vehicle for substantial transformation of the agricultural economy and considerable gains for farmers;
Furthermore, they invite the government of the Republic of Cameroon to become a strategic partner in building the institutional capacity of farming communities in economically and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices, including agroecology, that increase food production, improve farmers’ incomes, and ensure nutritional security of local communities at low cost, while providing huge returns on investment, both socio-economically and environmentally.
Through this declaration, Inades-Formation Cameroon, RADD and the Civil Society Organizations present at the third edition of the FOSPAC ask the government of the Republic of Cameroon “to channel funding towards agroecology, in order to strengthen the resilience of the national food system in case of unpredictable events”.
It should also be noted that all these organizations are committed to creating a platform of organizations for the promotion of farmers’ seeds. This showcase will be responsible for :
- Organize and promote a peasant seed system in Cameroon;
- To set up a harmonized control system for farm-saved seed;
- Identify, protect and promote endangered seeds
- Raise awareness, inform and mobilize stakeholders widely;
- Defending the rights of peasants to seed;
- To develop a Seed Entrepreneurship around Peasant Seeds (ESP) which will be proposed to the government;
- Conduct an advocacy campaign for the recognition of farmer seed in Cameroon.
Read the full statement
Marguerite MOMHA, Communication Inades-Formation Cameroon
