Dialogue on agricultural trade reform, subsidies and the future of small and family farms and farmers

This paper presents the main inputs to a conference on agricultural trade reform, subsidies and the future of small and family farms and farmers held in May 2004. It reports on a survey conducted for the U.K. Food Group (UKFG) / Sustain Working Group on Trade and Agriculture.An invitation was extended to numerous NGOs and research institutes representing farmers, international development, the environment and consumers. Of the 30 organisations involved, 17 were from the U.K., six were formal international coalitions (Birdlife, CPE, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, ROPPA and Via Campesina), two were research bodies in the United States, and there was one each from Brazil, France, Germany, India and the Netherlands.The principal points in common were found to include:a consensus that a general crisis in farm incomes exists, affecting farmers in both the North and the Souththe WTO agriculture rules give an unfair advantage to developed countries, and to their agribusiness firms more than their farmersthe greatest single abuse lies in the dumping of agricultural produce on export markets, especially where that is directly facilitated by export subsidies. This gives Northern agribusiness an unwarranted advantage in markets of the Southif agricultural subsidies in the North are to remain, they should be concentrated on smaller farms. At present they go disproportionately to the largest farms, helping to stifle the family farms which form the bedrock of rural life through most of the worldthe importance of giving priority to local, regional or national markets in agriculture is clearthere is concern over the small numbers of companies that farmers in any country or market sector have to deal with, and the excessive power that those companies therefore wield.The main policy challenges are seen as lying in:world trade rules, which allow Northern farmers to gain unfair advantages from agricultural subsidies, high tariffs and dumpingchronic production surpluses and inappropriate subsidies combined with the excessive market power of food-processing, retailing and input-supplying corporations.[adapted from author]