WTO rules on agriculture must highlight small-scale farmers: Experts

Experts at a side event of the WTO Public Forum 2024 observed that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules on agriculture must be able to address the core spirit of agriculture by supporting small-scale farmers for sustainability and food security.

"Now the world has a technological advancement than ever. But we cannot download the food with this technology. The farmers need to produce it and this is the core spirit of agriculture," they mentioned.

They informed that small-scale farmers across the world are the major contributors to sustainability, yet they have suffered the most from the effects of climate change and environmental degradation.

They were speaking at the event titled "Trade rules for supporting small-scale farming as contributors to green trade in agriculture" is jointly organized by the COAST Foundation, an NGO of Bangladesh, and Humundi, an NGO of Belgium, on Tuesday.

The speakers were Ogwuche Sunday, a Senior Counsellor with the Mission of Nigeria to the WTO, Jonas Jaccard of Humundi, a Brussels-based NGO, Helene Bank, Board Leader of Handelskampanjen, Norway, and Ranja Sengupta, Senior Researcher and Head of TWN India Trust.

Barkat Ullah Maruf, Director of Partnership and Development Communication of COAST Foundation from Bangladesh, moderated the session.

In his speech, Barkat Ullah Maruf said the small-scale farmers in Bangladesh are suffering most from the effects of climate change and environmental devastation.

"They are not able to produce crops as per their investment. At the same time, their engagement in global trade has been rather limited and precarious, made more vulnerable by global price volatility and an uncertain global market," he added.

Ogwuche Sunday said the small-scale farmers in Nigeria hardly have access to technology and lack capacity by a big margin to compete with the current form of agricultural trade negotiation.

They are the heart of agricultural production yet they are out of the discussion, he added.

Jonas Jaccard said, the EU is one of the biggest negotiators of agriculture in WTO yet the small-scale farmers across the European countries are suffering from the price fall of the agricultural products due to the unfair form of subsidy rules of WTO.

Helene Bank said in her speech that the small-scale farmers know the local knowledge and how to use the local resources better.

They are suffering not because of the poor financing but of the poor policy, she added.

Ranja Sengupta of Third World Network (TWN), India said, the mandate of the Agreement on Agriculture under WTO was to ensure sustainability of agriculture as advised by the SDG.

"But, unfortunately, it has failed to do so. They could have accepted the Public Stockholding as a solution but ignored it," she added.