Regional Conference on Women and Seeds

FNN is a membership of La Via Campesina (LVC). FNN sent three women peasant and young farmer representatives to participate in the regional conference on women and seeds, organized by La Via Campesina. The conferment was hosted by Korean Women Peasants Association (KWPA) at the Nonghyup Leadership Academy and the National Assembly of South Korea with approximately forty participants. They came from ten countries in South, Central and Southeast Asia, namely Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, India, Korea, Bangladesh, and Nepal. The focus was on “women and young farmers involved in agriculture and seed conservation”. This aims to exchange and strengthen experiences of global seed campaigns based on a critical analysis of the progress and current challenges of seed campaigns and to propose new and innovative strategies to develop future tasks, organization and communication.

All participants, in the conference, actively involved in main activities as follows share the status of agriculture and crop varieties, share experiences in conserving local varieties, the presence of women in agricultural work and maintaining crop varieties, public event in the National Assembly of Korea on the theme “What hope can farmers’ seeds and farmers’ agriculture create in times of crisis?”, discussion on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), and study tour on ecological agriculture and crop conservation in Sangju City.