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The “Sustainable Agriculture Action Group (SAAG)” is a loose grouping of civil society organizations, activists and farmer groups in Pakistan fighting against the existing agriculture system which emphasizes on increase in agricultural production without taking care of issues of farming communities. SAAG is committed to a sustainable, socio-culturally just, environment friendly, democratic and accountable agriculture system guided by the farming communities.  Through research and advocacy, SAAG:
 

1.       Promotes sustainable agricultural activities such as traditional organic farming;

2.       Promotes practices that conserve biodiversity, indigenous knowledge and culture;

3.       Advocates policies in favor of food security for all and country’s food sovereignty;

4.       Campaigns against national and international policies which influence small farmers and local agriculture; and

5.       Supports, above all, struggle of the farming communities for their rights and existence.

As of 25^th October 2004, the SAAG partners adopted the following statement of concern to explain the perception of SAAG regarding sustainable agricultural practices. The statement aims to introduce SAAG to the new members as well as general public and policy makers. 

The Statement

 
SAAG approach is based on a very basic principle i.e. “live with nature being part of it and mutually benefit from nature without hurting its processes or subjecting nature to merely commercial gains”. SAAG believes that communities / groups of people living in specific geographical and ecological conditions have their own system of livelihood, knowledge, science and technology which they develop time to time according to their needs. SAAG, however, believes that any new “technology” is of no use to us if it has no considerations for local peoples’ needs, their livelihood and knowledge patterns, and hence no considerations for earth and its processes.  SAAG have faith in agriculture which is not merely a source of marketable agricultural produce or livelihood but that is way of life of the farming communities which entails socio-cultural values and welfare of everything, living or non-living, around farms. SAAG reiterates the fact that agriculture is based on the historical experience of the agrarian communities, invoking the rich knowledge and practice of the communities stored in their agrarian practice, vocabularies and oral traditions. And, hence, at the SAAG platform, we believe that the enhanced traditional agriculture system (led by farming communities) is sustainable and has the potential to comply with food and agricultural requirements of the nation without compromising on farmer’s health, livelihood and culture; health of livestock; and conservation of the environment.

SAAG claims that introduction of green revolution technologies (high yielding crop varieties, agriculture machinery, chemical fertilizers and pesticides) during the early 60s were unsustainable, environmentally damaging and these have affected life of the farming communities in many ways. In actual effect, the conventional agriculture system based on the notorious “green revolution” was a deceptive means of imposing new agricultural practices on the South to create dependency on expensive and unnecessary inputs manufactured by corporations from the North where agriculture is merely an export industry as opposed to first addressing domestic food security before marketing food surpluses.

In the backdrop of above mentioned principles of sustainable agricultural practices, SAAG follows following rules which have been developed through day to day experience and knowledge of farming communities.

No use of pesticides - SAAG do not encourage use of chemical pesticides or poisons (insecticides and weedicides) for controlling pest problems. SAAG observes that killing pests through pesticides also kill all life forms including natural enemies of pests and those which are necessary for the fertility of land. Pest problems can initially be avoided by replacing mono-agriculture and unreliable seeds with that of multi-crops culture and promoting the use of local seeds. Cultivation of multi-crops at a farm encourages population of natural enemies of insect pests which help keep them suppressed. SAAG is committed to rehabilitation of mixed cropping practices, use of high quality selected local seeds, attentive crop management and use of natural pesticides, i.e. neem extracts, to keep pest problems under control.

No use of and gradual decrease in the application of chemical fertilizers - SAAG rejects use of chemical fertilizers for two good reasons: One, that agri-lands have diverse nutritional potential to produce various crops and this needs no external inputs; Second, that the chemical inputs instead halt and harm the underground activities of microorganism, earth worms and other life forms.  SAAG, therefore, believes that the primary focus must be the soil management and crop relation suiting to particular land. Dung and compost manures should be used rationally on need basis. However, in cases where land is extremely degraded because of continuous, heavy doses of chemicals, the gradual decreased in the application of chemical fertilizers may ultimately leads to organic farming with no use of chemical fertilizers.

Multicropping and use of on-farm resources - SAAG promotes multicropping or mixed cropping, inter-cropping, crop rotation, agroforestry and other traditional methods which retain and enhance soil fertility and increase productivity. Such cropping patterns are economically productive and strategically a reliable in terms of food security and risk management.  Corp rotation also helps pest management. The multicropping or mixed cropping is also an excellent risk management strategy, as the farmer may not depend on single crop.

Livestock and poultry are members of the farming households - Local variety crops and traditional farming practices ensure food for livestock, poultry, domesticated, and semi-domestical animals and birds which are part of the farming household. SAAG refuses fragmentation and departmentalization of agriculture. SAAG, therefore, encourages traditional farming practices and local varieties of crops, livestock, poultry and fishes as they are almost always economically advantageous, ecologically suitable and add to the cultural world of the farming communities.

Calculating total yield of the system - SAAG rejects the quantitative calculation of single crop production and instead emphasizes the need to assess total yield of a farming household including the material gains of the community as a whole. The perception of real productivity and capacity to audit the production and enhancement of natural resources in addition to yield of the harvest of the total system is crucial for national policies as well.

No patents on life forms - Seeds and genetic resources are the common resources and must be conserved at the household and community level - Patenting of life forms is a continuation of colonization and slavery through a sophisticated stick of scientific research.  Patenting of seeds, due to its very nature, diminishes local system of food security through diversity. Given the history and repeated examples of biopiracy in the world dominated by the transnational companies, SAAG believes that seeds should remain in the hands of farmers, particularly women. SAAG, therefore, opposes patenting and privatization of seeds and life forms in general. SAAG believes that the food security and the availability of seed for all are directly related to the biologically diverse system of production. Conservation of genetic resources is life for women farmers without which they have largely already lost their role and command over agrarian production cycles. Seed-saving practices on a larger scale has to be revived.

A genuine sui generis law to defend farmers as traditional breeders – SAAG rejects Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR) Act being enacted in the country which, one the one hand, does not protect rights of the farmers as traditional breeders and, on the other hand, creates monopolies of seed production. It possesses harsh penalties for farmers, contains no corporate liability, and no protection for framers against seed failure. In order to fight monopolies over seed, SAAG promotes use of local seeds and rights of farmers over seed. In Principal, farmers rights should also be incorporated in the said Act and it should rather be named as Farmer’s and Plant Breeder’s Rights (FPBR) Act.

Water is wealth - Water, from rivers and rain, is the primary and the most valuable resource for life activities. As a counter strategy to the ongoing faulty water management system, SAAG emphasizes over the creative use of water. Traditional water harvesting system, building small dams and their management with participation of local communities is key to sustainable water conservation and use for drinking as well as agriculture. SAAG also campaigns against the use of deep wells and supports the farmers to evolve innovative irrigation systems with surface water. SAAG believes that problem lies with water distribution and management and the agricultural practice that is heavily dependent on ground water extraction must be radically transformed.

Corporate Farming harms farming communities – In a situation where majority farmers have already become tools in the hands of market, feudal and agribusiness forces, corporatization of agriculture in Pakistan will further push them towards absolute poverty. SAAG questions the government that how small farmers will compete with the financial and political clout of giant corporations? Who will protect our farming communities which comprise about 50% of our population? SAAG believes that corporate greed for profit from renewable natural resources would lead to growing food insecurity and will harm already economically hard pressed subsistence farmers. As an alternative, SAAG proposes that all the state land should be distributed among landless agriculturists, ensuring that this is done equally between men and women peasants, and especially because women and not men tend to take on the responsibility of fulfilling household food needs before commercial disposal. Alternatives may be sought such as a cooperative farming model for peasants working on smallholdings below defined acreages; this will help increase agricultural production with certain crops.

No to GMOs (genetically modified organisms) – SAAG stance on GMOs is that genetic modification technology is unnatural, unethical and it poses serious threats to health, environment and food security of the world. Genetic engineering (GE) is basically agenda of transnational agriculture corporations of the North to get monopoly control over the world food system. On the contrary, SAAG believes that farming systems which use a wide range of crops without using chemicals are not only better for the health and environment but can also provide better food security for the world's poor.

WTO out of agriculture Or balance the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AOA) corresponding to the needs of developing countries – SAAG believes that agriculture should remain outside WTO as:

1. past nine and half years of AOA regime have made this clear that AOA is unfair, too rigid and incapable of being reformed well;

2. member countries such as US and EU cannot do agriculture without protection and they will never give up agriculture protection which is against their own devised free trade ideology;

3. agriculture has different meaning for South and North and it cannot fairly be dealt in a multilateral trading arrangement such as WTO; and

4. hence, there is need to deal agriculture outside WTO through some kind of global cooperation mechanism (i.e. in the framework of a UN Agreement).

The SAAG position is that agriculture as the fundamental means of survival does not belong under WTO and must remain sovereign within countries. In the meantime:

• developed countries should bring down tariffs on agricultural products and domestic support so that poor member countries can get their market share and take benefit;

• market access to developing countries should be given in practical terms and this demands phasing out of Amber Box and Blue Box subsidies in developed countries;

• disciplines in the Green Box should be reviewed in developed countries and subsidies should be capped;

• export subsidies must immediately be abolished;

• under ‘special and differential treatment (S&D)’ developing countries should have the right to protect their domestic markets by regulating all imports that undermine their food sovereignty.

• agriculture protection in developing countries is important for their food sovereignty and WTO rules must be kept flexible towards developing countries on at least food crops and livestock;

• SPS (sanitary and phyto-sanitary) and TBT (technical barriers to trade) agreements are another instrument in the hands of developed countries to restrict agriculture exports from the developing countries and it must be reordered according to the capacity of developing countries.

SPS (sanitary and phyto-sanitary) and TBT (technical barriers to trade) agreements are another instrument in the hands of developed countries to restrict agriculture exports from the developing countries and it must be reordered according to the capacity of developing countries.

At the national level SAAG demands:

·         political commitment at the highest level to save our agriculture and protect farming communities;

·         shift from export oriented corporate farming approach to the local consumption based government policy which means agricultural production, while competing with cheap imports, should initially satisfy the food and industrial demands of the country and only the surplus production should be allowed for export;

·         rethinking in our agriculture research system which should rather focus on cost effective and environment friendly agriculture;

·         introduction of WTO training courses in agriculture colleges and universities;

·         direct and consistent role of the Ministry of Agriculture in WTO agriculture negotiations, besides building capacity in the Ministry;

·         country’s proactive role along with like minded country-groups;

·         mass level awareness raising about WTO among farming communities; and

·         WTO agriculture positions through affective and broader consultations with farming communities.

_______________Statement ends here_________________





 

Contact SAAG

SAAG Secretariat

C/O Economic Justice and Development Organization (EJAD)

# 826, Lower Ground Floor, Street - 85, Sector I-8/4
  Islamabad- 44000, Pakistan

Tel: + 92-51-4100 798

Fax: + 92-51-4100 798

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