In most countries of the world institutions and people involved in Farmers' Rights are few and resources scarce. Thus, joining forces and pooling resources for the realization of Farmers' Rights are vital. This means that all stakeholders are invited to join forces and pool resources, including stakeholders that have traditionally not been thought of as allies in terms of Farmers' Rights.
A good starting point for a national consultative process is creating or enhancing awareness on the importance of Farmers' Rights. The more operational parts of the consultative process can be designed as a series of workshops/seminars leading towards a framework for implementation of Farmers' Rights, and if required, monitoring such implementation.
From history we know how discussions on Farmers' Rights have caused heated debates and conflicts rather than progress in the implementation of these rights. After decades of conflicts and mounting barriers against the realization of Farmers' Rights, it is now vital to move beyond the earlier controversies, build bridges and join forces across sectors to make Farmers' Rights a reality.
Ideally farmers should do so themselves. In countries with high membership levels and good representation, it is possible to invite the relevant organizations to identify representatives themselves. Perhaps they will choose some of their leaders and some farmer members to ensure that the views from the ground are well covered.
In some countries most farmers are members of farmers' organizations, in other countries few farmers have such memberships. However, even in countries with high membership levels it may be difficult to identify legitimate representatives of farmers, because not all organizations have participatory and democratic methods of electing representatives.
Farmers are not defined in the International Treaty. However, in several provisions, the Treaty emphasizes farmers who conserve and develop plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, particularly so in the provisions on Farmers' Rights.
The means for creating awareness are probably only limited by our fantasy.
Creating awareness through the media is a means to reach out to broader target groups, such as farmers (with access to TV, radio or newspapers/magazines), consumers, various interest groups and stakeholders, and the public at large.
Creating awareness across sectors can be done by inviting representatives from the central organizations and institutions in each of the sectors pertaining to Farmers' Rights to cross sector workshops and/or seminars. This can be done at the national and/or regional level, depending on the size of the country and available resources.
A useful measure for creating awareness can be to offer seminars or workshops in the most central organizations and institutions in the country with regard to Farmers' Rights.
The Leipzig Conference on Plant Genetic Resources was a major event in the 1990s. Here too the importance of the realization of Farmers' Rights was addressed. It was highlighted in the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable use of Plant Genetic Resources, as well as in the comprehensive State of the World's Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which formed a basis for the conference.
Thorough analysis of the documentation shows that the concept of Farmers' Rights was first brought up in international negotiations in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1986.