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.

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.

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 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.

Creating awareness sector wise can be done by inviting representatives from the various relevant organizations and institutions within each of the sectors pertaining to Farmers' Rights to sector wise 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.

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.

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.

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.