The 2nd International Symposium on Agroecology, took place in Rome at FAO Headquarters from 3 – 5 April 2018. Navdanya International joined over 350 civil society organizations attending the Symposium, along with more than 700 participants and representatives of 72 governments and 6 UN organizations.
The symposium represented a significant opportunity for CSOs to present ideas and projects, share knowledge and strengthen alliances. Particular emphasis was given to the increasingly urgent need for a paradigm shift from the unsustainable production model of the Green Revolution to a system that respects and regenerates the limited resources of our planet, and the rights and dignity of people.
Navdanya presented its studies, and the outcomes of programs and actions on the ground carried out in the last 30 years in the promotion of Seed and Food sovereignty, Agroecology and biodiversity based organic farming, as well as in defense of the right of small farmers to save, exchange and evolve seeds. We underlined how agroecology is already giving answers and solutions to the multiple crisis of our time, the food and health crisis, the environmental and climate crisis, to the problems related to biodiversity erosion, as well as to unemployment and livelihoods in rural areas.
Particularly, the project Seeds of Hope was presented, which aims at improving climate resilience, seed and food sovereignty for small farmers communities in India, as well as at recognizing the value of women’s traditional knowledge. The program focuses on the empowerment of marginalized rural communities through the development of a sustainable plan for ecological and economic security including the identification and multiplication of climate resilient local seeds, agroecology training, and income generating activities for women.
Also read:
Celebrating Biodiversity, Agroecology and Organic Food Systems
Brochure
Seeds of Hope, Seeds of Resilience – How Biodiversity and Agroecology offer Solutions to Climate Change by Growing Living Carbon
Report