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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

During the controversies over farmers’ rights over the past decades, two rationales have been prevalent: the 'stewardship' and 'ownership' approaches.

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.