Farmers Since Rio: From Talk to Action

• NICARAGUA: Unión Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (UNAG)
• UGANDA: Uganda Co-operative Alliance (UCA)
• SWEDEN: Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF)

NICARAGUA: Unión Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (UNAG)

Founded in 1981, UNAG is an association of farmers and cattle ranchers whose aim is to promote economic democratization by increasing the participation of its members in economic, financial and agribusiness activities as well as improve access to international markets. It brings together over 120,000 producers of which nearly 70 percent are members of co-operative organizations. UNAG is responsible for a significant proportion of national agricultural production: 98% of domestic corn , 95% of bean production, 100% of millet, 60% or vegetable and 30% of poultry. It is also an important exporter producing 50% of coffee exports, 60% of beef, 90% of sesame seed and 20% of cotton. UNAG is a member of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and is in the process of becoming a member of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA).

UNAG's Campesino to Campesino programme in Rivas began in 1992, following an exchange of experiences that brought campesinos from this southern department into contact with farmers and promoters from communities already active in the programme. Soon after, five farmers from Rivas were trained in Santa Lucia, Boaco, where the Campesino to Campesino programme began in 1987. When they returned home, the new promoters began to experiment with organic fertilizer for corn, root crops, vegetables and fruits. They also began to try out natural insecticides made from chili peppers, garlic, onion, tobacco, and other local resources as a substitute for expensive chemical products.

When the five promoters observed the positive results of the new techniques on their individual plots, they began the slow process of transmitting their experience to family members, friends and neighbours. The first training sessions involved investigating the characteristics of the soil and terrain, terracing, and learning to make compost heaps. Putting these measures into practice involves considerable work during the dry season. The idea of spending the hottest part of the year doing hard manual labour without any immediate economic benefit was not always well accepted. In this area, many campesinos leave their farms during the dry season and go to work on coffee or banana haciendas in neighbouring Costa Rica, returning only when the planting season is about to begin.

Nonetheless, during the first year 120 small farmers attended the workshops and the number of promoters grew from 5 to 7. Themes such as seed selection and the use of natural insecticides were included in the training, as well as alternative techniques for ploughing, planting and fertilizing. Interest in the programme has grown steadily. Today Campesino to Campesino in Rivas has 20 trained promoters who in turn have helped train more than 600 farmers. With some outside financial support, they have installed 22 home irrigation systems based on wells and simple rope pumps. This technique has sparked great interest among small producers since it allows them to extend their growing season.

"I've learned a great deal."

Carlos Vidal, a Campesino to Campesino promoter is a small producer who owns very marginal land on a 15% slope. Vidal says that the programme has helped him raise his standard of living. "I barely produced anything before, but now I get good yields." As an example, Vidal states that he used to obtain around 800 lbs. of beans from 0.7 hectare he planted; now he has harvested up to 1500 lbs. His corn yields, too, have more than tripled. Vidal feels that he, like the 30 producers he attends in his spare time, has learned to manage the little land he has to best advantage. "We're not dependent on the bank and we survive with the resources we have". Nevertheless, he stated that many farmers in the area are insecure about their property rights and this hinders their full participation in the programme. "Many times the campesinos ask, "why should I work to conserve my land? They might take it away from me later".

Carlos Alberto Palma says that the first Campesino to Campesino training workshops opened new horizons for him. "The programme teaches us to learn from what we do. Before we thought that grafting plants, for example, was something that only trained agronomists could do. Now we know that even without formal academic preparation we can do many things." He feels that the Campesino to Campesino programme has had an impact in the community, even among producers who do not participate directly in the programme. For example, there are large and small producers outside the programme who have stopped burning their fields and are reforesting their land.

Adolfo Diaz, technical coordinator of the programme in Rivas, is convinced that farmers working with the Campesino to Campesino programme need to develop their marketing capacity as well as their production skills. This, he says, is necessary if they are to obtain optimum economic results. 'The Campesino to Campesino programme is growing throughout Nicaragua and more and more farmers are adopting sustainable farming methods' he says. 'The programme must find ways to facilitate the marketing of their products at more favourable prices'.

UGANDA: Uganda Co-operative Alliance (UCA)

Uganda is an agricultural country with an estimated population of 19 million people. 80-90% of these men and women live in the rural areas engaged in agriculture. A significant proportion of the small holder farming population, through membership of democratically controlled co-operative primary societies for the protection and promotion of their economic and other interests, have sustainably raised their agricultural production in terms of quantity and quality, and significantly increased their incomes.

Uganda Co-operative Alliance (UCA) representing about 1.5 million farmer members of various co-operative organizations, has since the second liberation of Uganda in 1986, been a serious and effective participant in activities through various development projects country wide. Notably UCA has been a key participant in the emancipation of rural women, who form the largest percentage of the farming community, through education aimed at empowering them to effectively participate in decision making and assuming leadership positions in the co-operative movement and in all levels of society. UCA is the spokesman for all the co-operative member farmers as well as a coordinator of foreign aid. UCA recently reviewed its mission to focus on the member as its primary customer UCA through a number of development programmes has assisted the farmers to improve productivity and production in the rural areas.

UCA Development Programmes

• Emergency Relief Assistance in the North: 77,000 female headed households in northern Uganda were assisted with a package of agricultural tools and implements to settle after the war.
  
• The Matching Grant Programme: 300 primary societies with an average membership of 300 were assisted with projects ranging from livestock improvement projects, grinding mill operations, construction of stores for members produce and farm supply shops for providing inputs to the farmers.
  
• Production Credit to Rural Women: through assistance provided by the Canadian Co- operative Association, production credit has been extended to 836 women in 31 primary societies in six districts in Uganda.
  
• Co-operative Finance and Oil Seed Programme: promotion of growing oilseeds namely soybean and sunflower has been promoted in 90 primary societies in Eastern and Northern Uganda, where a total of 3, 474 and 19, 866 hectares have been planted with a production of 3,875 and 19,878 metric tons of soybean and sunflower in 1996 respectively. Under the same programme farmer extension and training including demonstration plots and modern storage cribs were introduced to the farmers.
  
• Co-operative Reform and Development Programme (CRDP): under this programme small holder farmers were empowered to control their activities in their primary societies. Women became active participants in the affairs of their organizations. Farmer exchange programmes were arranged to avail members an opportunity to visit different areas and projects to share experience of sustainable agriculture. Training in extension and advisory services in business provided by the co-operative business and advisory training Unit of UCA. This training unit enabled primary societies to do more viable businesses and increased their members' income through payment of bonuses and second payments.

Problem Areas, Constraints And Shortcomings
In an economy that is predominantly agricultural, a number of difficulties emanating from a host of both internal and external factors are bound to be experienced. In the case of Uganda, removal of government subsidies, inadequate extension services and at times political instability have affected agricultural production. Technological stagnation and the lack of linkage between farmers and research institutes, has also tended to leave the farmers in the cold, using inferior seeds and practicing non-sustainable means of production. Lack of production credit to the rural farmer due to lack of interest of commercial banks in financing agricultural production has been another negative factor. More often Banks demand urban based collateral from rural farmers for agricultural production. This not only discourages farmers from engaging in agricultural production, but affects the whole country's economy. The assumed capacity of the private sector to immediately replace the role of public institutions input and credit delivery has not yet materialized. There is still a great reliance on donor funding.

Priorities
Major priorities for the next five years include:

• Area co-operative enterprises which are economically viable and sensitive to member needs,
  
• Area service centres whose activities will be member demand driven to provide training, extension services, processing facilities etc.
  
• Rural financial services which will address the problem of credit and insurance services to members crops etc.
  
• Co-operative marketing services which will address the marketing aspects of the members,
  
• National carriage and distribution service which will address transport and distribution related services to members.

Strategies
UCA in fulfillment of its objectives and in realization of its members plight, has put in place the following strategies:

• Linking its farmers to research institutes and stations to enable the farmers access modern techniques and improved varieties of seeds etc.
  
• Targeting high yielding crops to increase members' incomes,
  
• Strengthening on farm demonstrations and exchanges to avail farmers an opportunity to use modern and sustainable techniques,
  
• Make strategic alliances with as many players in the agricultural sector as possible to adapt to new techniques,
  
• Represent our farmers on as many government policy making bodies as possible to have policies that will benefit them.

SWEDEN: Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF)

LRF brings together farmers’, forest owners and agricultural co-operatives in Sweden. Over 90% of Sweden’s farmers are members with high membership from the co-operative movement. For example, 100% of the dairy co-operatives and 80% of the meat marketing co-operatives are members. The aim of LRF is create conditions for efficient, market-oriented and competitive companies. By advancing the economic interests of farmers, conditions are also created for promoting and satisfying social and cultural interests. LRF is a member of both the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP).

In 1992, the LRF made a strategic choice. Its Annual General Assembly formally committed the LRF to enhance its efforts to improve environmental work and animal welfare in Swedish agriculture. The purpose was twofold: to improve its competitive strength a short-term basis and to achieve a sustainable agriculture over the long term. Its main motivation behind that commitment was consumers' interest in environmentally friendly products. Focusing on quality, environment, sound production, and animal welfare would increase the competitiveness of Swedish foodstuffs. The following focuses on some of LRF's main activities, namely Eco-audits, catchment based watershed groups, work with pesticides as well as its commitment to enhance organic and integrated production methods - activities LRF believes are concrete examples of how farmers can - and to a certain extent already have - contributed to a sustainable agriculture.

Eco Audits
Completing an Eco Audit provides the farmer with a good tool for identifying activities that can help improve both the economical and ecological state of the farm for the individual farmer. It can then serve as a platform for the farmer is continued work in the environmental and animal-care areas. In close collaboration with the COOP-companies and other collaborative partners in rural areas, an environment forum is established in each county as a base for environmental, animal-care, and quality-enhancement efforts.

By the end of 1997 a joint project with most of the agro-cooperatives, environmental organisations, authorities and consumers representatives will have created a new, improved version of the Eco Audit which will be based on the same principles as the EMAS system - continuous improvement. The new instrument contains elements of environmental key-ratio calculation, requirements of substantial agro-environmental documentation, environmental auditing and environmental annual accounting. This tool is intended to aid in the identification of optimal environmental and ecological solutions so as to strengthen the competitiveness of the individual farm.

Reducing the impact on marine and inland waters
The leakage of plant nutrients from farms is largely a diffuse leakage that cannot be traced to specific fields, crops, buildings or liquid manure pits. Rather, it is the result of numerous activities in a complex production process. In Sweden, as in many neighboring countries, comprehensive and detailed legislation has been enacted to reduce the environmental impact of point sources above all. What now remains is to find manageable solutions for the diffuse problems which are based on participation and presuppose that know-how and insight will be reflected in the daily decisions made on the farms. Local solutions must be sought and the farmer's commitment and capacity for progressively dealing with environmental issues must be made use of.

Catchment based watershed groups - Agenda 21 in practice
Creating co-operation groups consisting of farmers, rural residents and public officials working within a given runoff area - and getting them to work jointly to reduce plant nutrient leakage - can lead to more cost-effective, flexible and locally adapted solutions. Comprehensive transfer of know-how, training and counseling as key elements. Tested in more than 15 areas in foremost the southern parts of Sweden, it will soon form an important initiative to reduce the environmental burden on agriculture if the required financial and legislative support is provided by the authorities.

Pesticide reduction
The farmers of Sweden have reduced their use of pesticides by 70% since 1985. Among the results of the efforts to reduce the risks associated with pesticides have been a diminution of the amounts of pesticides used per hectare, compulsory spraying certificates, taxes on pesticides, increased research and development and progress in the development of non-chemical plant-protection measures. Sweden is now phasing its third reduction programme, where the emphasis is not on quantitative reduction goals, but substantial risk-reduction measures, where the LRF plays a crucial role for future success. Through the implementation and improvement of an internal Eco Audit which is now emphasized towards a complete environmental steering system, far- reaching risk-reduction will be achieved. The LRF has formulated a pesticide policy In short the policy implies that plant protection in the future must be based on preventive and supportive crop rotation measures and produce clean, safe foodstuffs that reflect regards for the environment and find acceptance by consumers. Such a cultivation system must be kept free of non-natural substances that are not easily biodegradable. All other substances should be phased out in the long-term.

Organic Production
As in several European countries, ecological cultivation has evolved quickly in Sweden in recent years, with roughly 4% of Swedish farmland now being ecologically cultivated. LRF's goal is to achieve a level of 10% by the turn of the millennium. In the autumn of 1995, the LRF adopted a policy making ecological farming a self-evident part of our striving to create the world s cleanest agriculture. In 1995, therefore, the LRF - together with the Swedish Ecological Farmers Association - formulated a development programme for ecological foodstuffs that focuses on development and counseling. Organic production is seen as one of many ways to achieve a sustainable agriculture - not as in several European countries - as a niche production. The LRF is thus participating with other concerned parties in a joint campaign aimed at achieving 10% ecological area and applying for membership in the IFOAM, the international organisation for ecological production. Priorities are given to the areas of plant nutrients supply, grazing parasites, organic seed production and pest management. Many of the ecological farmers in Sweden are members of the LRF.

Integrated production
The LRF is striving to environmentally adapt Swedish farming in the short term. After that, its aim is to achieve a resource-efficient and long-term sustainable agriculture. This effort is not only to refocus on ecological production, but foremost to further develop conventional cultivation. Unlike the case in several competitor countries, integrated production is seen in Sweden as a first step, as is ecological cultivation, towards achieving a sustainable production system. It is not seen as an end-goal in itself.

Several labeling systems are being developed now: for horticultural produce, cereal and grains, and animal products. The co-operative slaughterhouse company Scan s BIS ( Best in Sweden ), the co-operative SLR/Lantmånnen s, specialised in cereals and grains, Svenskt Sigill ( Swedish Seal ) and the horticultural group GRF s IP-markings have all arisen from the same ambition: to enhance the environmental image of Swedish agricultural and openly indicate to consumers groups the efforts being invested into an environmental and ethical sound production by the agricultural sector in Sweden. Developments in this regard have been most rapid in the horticultural sector, where competition is keen and where more than 65% of the output today is grown in accordance with national IP regulations.

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