Farmer Delegation

Emerging believes that engaging farmers, young agricultural leaders, and representatives of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in high-level discussions on the future of food and agriculture must be a priority. We strive to put this belief into action across projects and clients, and recently we have:

• Encouraged farmer and agricultural SME representatives to attend UN meetings in their regions, working through our partners, in particular Farming First and the Global Farmer Network.
• Enabled 12 business representatives to participate in FAO’s Asia Regional Biotech Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia, and provided travel support to 2 farmer representatives from the Philippines and India through sponsorship from a member.
• Facilitated the attendance of 4 farmers and SME representatives at the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Steve Ngunyi of Kenya, Georgina Gutierrez of Mexico, and Agusdin Pulungan of Indonesia wrote reflections on their experience at CFS44.
• Supported 7 farmers and SME representatives at the FAO’s Africa Regional Biotech Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. See a blog post about the event here.
• Supported farmers to attend meetings of the Codex Alimentarius in Rome to speak on the impact of food safety measures, of their absence, on growers from developing countries.

Emerging plans to continue capitalizing on the momentum we have built so far by continuing to support the participation of farmers and SMEs at conferences and by building relationships with groups like Nuffield International, a network of brilliant young agricultural leaders from across the world.