Farmers’ Rights: Honoring heritage, cultivating our shared future

ASTHE WORLD gathers in Manila for the Second Global Symposium on Farmers’ Rights, generously hosted by the Government of the Philippines, we are called to reflect not only on the lessons and legacy of the past, but also on the aspirations and responsibilities for the future.

- By Kent Nnadozie and Lionel Dabbadie

The theme of the Second Global Symposium, “Farmers’ Rights: Honoring Heritage, Preserving Biodiversity and Cultivating Food Security for a Shared Future,” captures the essence of a fundamental reality, but which is not always recognized — that farmers are not just food producers. They are stewards of agrobiodiversity, innovators of crop adaptation, and guardians of the genetic resources that sustain us and enrich our planet.

At the heart of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture lies Article 9, Farmers’ Rights. This is not a peripheral clause. It is the moral and legal recognition of farmers’ profound and continuing contribution to the conservation and development of plant genetic resources, especially those cultivated and maintained over generations in traditional farming systems.

HONORING HERITAGE

The crops we depend on today — wheat, rice, maize, millet, and thousands more — carry within them the stories and imprints of countless farmers, indigenous peoples, and local communities who, for millennia, selected seeds not just for yield, but for resilience, taste, nutrition, and cultural significance.