FSC in Dialog: Food Sovereignty Strategy Developed By and For Small Scale Farmers in the Philippines

In 1985, a group of farmers, scientists and NGOs in the Philippines initiated a program to recover the diverse rice varieties displaced by the Green Revolution and to develop agriculture from the context of small scale farmers.  After 28 years, this group, called MASIPAG, has collected more than a thousand varieties of traditional rice and they have also developed more than 1,700 improved varieties through breeding.  Many farmers learned to do breeding and many other farmers developed farming technologies that are freely diffused and circulated between and among farmers.  As a result, farm diversity and sustainability has increased, productivity improved leading to better income.  Farmers are confident and proud that their diverse seeds, associated knowledge, and technology are better than the Green revolution and Gene revolution, and they are also more resilient to climate change.

Charito P. Medina, breeding scientist and Member of MASIPAG Network, emphasized that the MASIPAG approach turned the farmer during the past years into a self-confident actor. With creativity and commitment they increased the productivity and the income of their farms - one low cost base. Beside this he reflected the role genetically modified crop like Golden rice in the seminar.