Since the entry into force of the Plant Treaty, Farmers’ Rights have been a hot topic for negotiations in the Treaty’s Governing Body. What should the contents be, more precisely? And how to realize Farmers’ Rights? Here you can read about the negotiations at each of the sessions of the Governing Body and about the inter-sessional processes providing the points of departure for those negotiations. As Farmers’ Rights are affected by other international regimes as well, a brief overview of relevant processes is offered.

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The stepwise approach to realize Farmers' Rights is based on research carried out through the Farmers' Rights Project. Within this framework, different avenues are possible, dependent on needs and priorities.

To understand the provisions on Farmers' Rights in the International Treaty, it is useful to review the history of negotiations regarding these rights. Since Farmers' Rights were first taken up in international negotiations in 1986, important clarifications have been made.

Farmers' Rights related to seed and propagating material are a precondition for the maintenance and further development of crop genetic diversity, which is the basis of all food and agriculture production in the world. Thus, realizing Farmers’ Rights is central to achieving and maintaining global food and nutrition security. For small-scale farmers in the Global South, the realization of Farmers’ Rights is a means to fighting hunger and poverty.

Farmers' Rights related to crop genetic resources refer to the rights that farmers have with regard to seed, propagating material and crop genetic diversity in general – and associated knowledge. Basically, realizing Farmers' Rights means enabling farmers to maintain and develop crop genetic diversity, and recognizing and rewarding them for this indispensable contribution to the global pool of genetic resources and to local and global food security.

This is the first category of options to encourage, guide and promote the realization of Farmers’ Rights in the Options Document. It comprises options for the recognition of local and indigenous communities’ and farmers’ contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, such as awards and recognition of custodian/guardian farmers.

Here, possible contents of a core workshop on the design of a national framework for implementation of Farmers' Rights are outlined. This is based on the workshop module prepared for that purpose, and further details can be found there. The outline below may however also serve as points of inspiration to develop an own workshop program, or program for the workshop series.

A broad based consultative process should ensure participation from all central stakeholder groups, from all regions of the country, from different ethnic groups (if relevant), from men and women.

Even when farmers have been identified on a legitimate basis, it is not necessarily sufficient to ensure farmers' active participation in the implementation process.

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Whereas steps 1 and 2 are concerned with the foundation for the implementation process, this third step describes how a broad-based national consultative process can be designed for the implementation of Farmers' Rights. It is based on the workshop module developed for this purpose.