Farmers’ Right to Participate in Decision-making

A new working paper shows that the operationalization of Article 9.2(c) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is severely lacking at the national, regional and international levels. Farmers face considerable challenges in exercising their right to participate at all these levels, with the consequence that decisions including on policies and laws not only ignore farmers’ needs, but also adversely affect farmers’ freedom to operate. Learning from the challenges, this paper discusses some of the key elements that are essential for the effective operationalization of farmers’ right to participate in decision-making.