 Good morning, everyone. I'm Valentina Morales. I'm a support specialist in the family farming team, the FAO for Latin America and the Caribbean. I'll be with you as a tear. Welcome, everyone. This first series of dialogues of knowledge and practices in family farming. And before we start, let me remind you that we have simultaneous interpretation into Spanish, English, and Portuguese, which you can find at the bottom bar of the Zoom. We're trying to promote the collaborative of learning and the transfer of knowledge among governments, farmers, and other stakeholders to make visible the contributions from family farming as part of the transformation agenda of agricultural systems following the Global Plan for Family Farming of the Decade of the United Nations for Family Farming. And according to the Santiago's chart in 1922, we'll go into the technical platform managed by the Regional FAO, Office for Latin American and the Caribbean, supported by the Family Farming and Parliamentary Network platform. All these discussions will be available in the technical platform, and you will have your gain access to it through our webpage. All these dialogues will be articulated with global articulation agendas to make visible the experiences to strengthen family farming, considering three main topics. Today is the Contribution of Family Farming in Environmental and Climate Agenda. The second topic is Investment of Family Farming under the role of the sector for inclusive world transformation and family farming and the building of sustainable markets. As I said, this first traditional organized with a specialized meeting of family farming from Mercosur, RIA, the Pro Temporary Chair in Brazil, and the National Organization on the Family Farming Ministry. We will tell you the potential of our ecology and family farming to face the challenges in this transformation agenda, especially those of climate environmental challenges. This first meeting is broken down into three sessions. First was last September 27, 2009. The discussion was focused on the principles and practices of agro-ecology and they identified the challenges and opportunities to promote this agenda. This session will focus on agro-ecology and institutionality and we'll have presentations on progress and public policies from Mercosur countries and how these interrelate with family farming. Third session, next October 31st, we'll have presentations of experiences from all over the world to discuss the potential to try agro-ecological transition in family farming. Today, we have six speakers. Lautaro Vizcai is the technical secretary of RIA, the Mercosur, an introduction of the agro-ecology committee, then the presentations from Fort Canto de Chile, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay on the focal point of the Agro-ecology Commission of RIA, the leader of the government, and a presentation by Carlos Vizcai. We're presenting on the Confederation of Organizations of Family Farmers, extended the Mercosur co-profam on the transition towards agro-ecological systems in family farming. Then we will have a Q&A period to deep dive into the presentation. So please take notes of those questions that you may want to ask. And that you can always ask. You can always use the chat pod. It's a Q&A box, so you can use it. So please let's stick to the times a lot and I will let you know when you have one minute to before ending your presentation. So let's first begin with the Lautaro Vizcai is the technical secretary of RIA, the Mercosur. Good morning to the pro-temporary chair of Brazil. Thank you, Valentina. The Specialized Meeting of Family Farming of Mercosur is a formal agency of Mercosur, a specialized agency in the design and proposals of public policies which are differentiated for family farming in the extended Mercosur. This specialized meeting of 2004, nearly 20 years already has dealt with through political dialogues of family farming and pharmacist position and governments to drive the institutionality and regulatory frameworks and public policies through programs and funding for the sector, the main ethos. Agroecology has been part of the whole political dialogue, the process of this year, RIA, Mercosur. We have more teams and this Agroecology commission is very new, established by late 2020, and that was a dialogue that was proposed and dialogue as part of a specific commission on tribal change, but given the need of working on these decades of family farming, the requirements for farm associations and governments for the need to change agri-food systems into fair, just systems with a balanced transition towards the ethos of family farming, practice, ethics, value, community, history, we address agroecology and the governments have also seen the opportunity to strengthen and building the regulatory framework so that Agroecology can move forward, supported globally from the United Nations and all the United Nations agencies that since 2008 have confirmed together with governments how Agroecology has the ability to help us rethinking territories, rethinking production, consumption and distribution, helping us to contribute to 2030 agenda goals. So RIAF, of course, had to take these initiatives from organizations and the experiences and practices being used for several years in the farmers movements for so many years and translate these into a public policy in different countries. So we have institutional frameworks in every country, developments, specific programs have been designed and are being designed in order to change agri-food systems. Like Valentina said, today we will have a group of countries, full members of RIAF, Casio, with MTA. I'd like to thank Casio, the Pro Temporary Chair from Brazil, who will help us to deal with such an important topic which requires substantial development at the technical and political level in the region. We will have a full member of countries that will be presenting and help us to deal with such an associated country with initiatives. And finally, we have a scope of art to share with us what they have done in the last few years. Last but not least, Valentina for us, the RIAF Mercosur Colleagues. Our idea is to set the groundwork to our foundations, as we just, you know, is to sign recommendations, decisions to contribute to guidelines in our Mercosur countries, which as part of the national plans of the decade of family farming will become more cooperation among governments to reach the territories. This is a huge opportunity to move forward in political guidelines. And today, it's part of that build-up of agendas we need to agree on the next coming guidelines, recommendations that Mercosur will offer. So thank you for this cycle to move forward. And from these experiences, we can agree on the best designs required in the region to scale up the agroecology. Let me close by saying that for RIAF Mercosur, agroecology, climate change, genetics, native seeds, land, thinking the territory, the territorial planning and the environment, goes, it's part of differentiated public policies into agroecology transition. We know about the crisis, the food crisis, not only war and volatility of prices, but we also know that we share here the problems with food, access to healthy food. So whatever we can contribute from family farming will contribute to the 39 RIAF in Brazil. So thank you. Thank you, Lautaro, for the kind introduction, for the context and the goals of the presentations we'll be listening to today. And for emphasizing the importance of moving on social and political guidelines. So now let's go for the presentations of all four countries. The first presentation is from Tile, Sebastian Borque, the focal point of the agroecology commitment from the Instituto de Desarrollo Agropecuario in Chile. Yeah, 15 minutes, I'll let you know one minute before the 15 minutes. Thank you, Valentina. Thank you, Lautaro. Greetings to all the focal points and the Brazilian Pro Temporary Chair. Let me start my presentation by sharing my screen. You let me know if you can see my screen. Yes, we can. Okay. Okay. These are the steps Chile has adopted in public policy through supporting agroecology. I will basically touch upon what in-depth has been going in family farming. Even the short time I have, I will address a transition towards sustainable agriculture. This is a new program launched this year to be implemented. However, I will address other initiatives on agroecology, which are also quite important as part of what in-depth is doing in Chile. The agroecological approach or sustainable agriculture or farming has been going on in Chile for quite some time, civil societies, NGOs contributing to the process. And of course, the various governments have added these approach in some other policies. However, only now, only a few years ago, the topic became more important. This is a global trend working stronger on these topics and discussed the need to promote these type of production, agroecology-based or sustainability-based principles in a more specific manner. That's why current administration has emphasized these family farming production. And as a result of that, the proposal, these new promotion programs by INDA are addressing the agroecological transition of family farming. To put things into context, the Ministry of Agriculture today has a guideline which is quite consistent with the current climate change scenario. The climate crisis and economic, the social crisis the world is going through. And those guidelines have eight main topics that we just address, those that have to do with sustainability and agroecology. Sustainability, of course. Food security and sovereignty and strengthening of family farming. The other six are also important. They also have to do with agroecology. But those three, I would say, are closer, more related to the program I will be sharing you. The new program of transitioning to sustainable agriculture, TAS, this was put together because of the need increasing among our farmers, increasing the number of farmers managing sustainable production systems. Including sustainable practices or sustainable management. These program aims that are providing INDAps users a specialized advising plus economic incentive for these productive transformation system by adding, as I said, a series of sustainable management techniques that are ecologically based in the country. For that, they are technically supported, but they're also supported with the resources to implement these changes. This is a very specialized approach as part of INDAps program. Another element is that this program aims at assessing the impact. The idea is to start with the farmers, whatever the sustainability stage they are, diagnose the stage, and then once the recommendations are offered for sustainable management to see what the impact of those practices has been, which is a new approach for INDAps programs. This program has SDT. It's consistent with the SDT goal. As INDAps, we are consistent. We follow the SDTs. We have audits in place to have our focus on these global goals. INDAps has a strategy, a 2023-2030 strategy, also considering sustainable resilient management, producing more and better with the lower environmental impact. There are other strategic axes also supporting the sustainable farming, inclusive markets, participative and associative transformation, which is critical for the marketing of these products and the strengthening and modernization of INDAps, which is an in-house internal transformation aiming at these types of approaches. What is the big challenge we want to address through this tool? Through TAS, we want to address the implementation of public policies related to family farming and climate change adaptation, and among the most important policies today in our country is the National Policy for Rural Development up to 2024, the National Plan for Climate Change, which is being updated, and the National Strategy for Sovereignty for Fruitless Security. These are the three main policies or tools, macro tools. The TAS, as well as other programs are trying to address. The other challenge is to promote sustainable transition of family farming based on agroecology. We had instruments in the past aiming and supporting agroecology, but not in a clear science way. These programs are devoted to these types of development. We have a positive political environment, a green government, which is pro-agroecology as part of the platform. The Ministry of Agriculture and INDAPS guidelines are also good drivers. We have the SIPAM experience between FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture with INDAP and ODEPA as the main coordinators of the ministry, aiming at acknowledging the agri-food legacy of Chile. In that agroecology, it's critical. So this is fully consistent with agroecology. Stakeholders, what are the stakeholders in this program? INDAP at the central level, at the regional level, is part of the design through collaborative processes, the farmers' associations, the CARADCADAS, who offer their feedback and they also validate the program INIA, which is another agency in the Ministry of Agriculture dealing with research. We'll be executing the program, providing specialized advising on agroecology through an agreement with INDAP. They are executing this program. And the INDAPS Sustainability and Agroecology Network, which is the support for this program for proper execution of the sustainability in every region, will liaise with that INDAP. And we also have an international collaboration with ITV, providing different views for user characterization and to measure the impact of the program among INDAPS users and farming as a whole. So the overall goal is to increase the number of INDAPS users at the national level using farming systems based on sustainable management and practices. The management and performance assessment will be responsible for INDAP. Execution and the advising will be done by INIA. What are the strategic axes or the main drivers of technical advising, incentives and training to enhance these practices? The transition program is like a school. Farmers will join. They will be trained as a group. They will receive specific consulting or advising on these topics. Land, biodiversity, pests, diseases, water, marketing and collaboration. This is a two-year program. At present, we have 1,002 INDAPS users that will join the program. And then after two years, another 1,000 beneficiaries will join. This is a starting number, an additional number of the program may be expanded and could welcome more users. We're just beginning. This is sort of a pilot experience. Go find it. Go funding by users is zero and the coverage is all 16 regions. The main outcomes are resolved so far. This is just the beginning. This was introduced last August. Sorry, interruptions. You only have five minutes to close your presentation. The main results is the implementation of a new user selection system, the evaluation of farm sustainability and the field records. That's the fair thing, which is how we keep record of the agricultural production in family farming. Stoning the program by territories and a method to assess the performance of the program, which is provided by IDP. Challenges are the challenges over and above the transition program. Coordination and cooperation with the various Ministry of Agriculture agencies and from other ministries to execute the climate change adaptation plan. Leveraging resources for agri-cology projects and there are devoted resources for this program that are not enough. We always need additional resources to expand the impact of agri-cology. Promote public procurement of agricultural food from family farming to build, to grow these demands so that more and more farmers can join this paradigm. Building a record method, a record-keeping method. The next steps are to execute regional sustainability and agricultural transition plans. Building regional networks supporting the execution of this plan, the updating of all the program, which is for the recovery and preservation of soil, working with the farmers' organizations for public policy recommendation and agri-cology as part of the RE-AFT, which has been doing at the national section of the agri-cological strategy associated with the national family farming plan. Another instrument are initiatives. This is just to show you that besides the TAS, there are other initiatives. The soil program, we're recovering the potential of soils and preserve them over time through practices and preservation of soil. And these programs include technical advising even for the preparation of management plans. Many farmers are limited in the use of these tools because they don't have the way to submit their projects or management plans. So this program will also support them. And last but not least, the initiative or project, the C-PAN project. This is an initiative which is very important because this is the only one aiming directly to the recognition and preservation of our agri-food legacy. We've worked on two main territories in the high Indian territory and in the Beguinche territory in south, in the Indian region. We have wetlands in the northern Chile, llamas and alpacas and terraces and so-called eras. In southern region we have biotivers, family orchards, a collection of non-Temper forestry products. Those are important sites. So we're working with communities. We try to recognize and make it visible through different means including in-depth FAOs. And last but not least, the sustainability network which aims at supporting all these initiatives, aims at supporting them through the development of regional networks. As one responsible person from region, we meet on a monthly basis and we have regional sustainability plans as well as agroecological transition. That's what I add for you and Julie from INDAP. There are other initiatives but from INDAP those are probably the most critical ones. Thank you. Thank you so much. I think it's clear guidelines and also something that you highlight which is the specific motion of agroecology following a lot of more resources and looking for more resources to keep fostering and developing more programs and projects on this topic. For your presentation, if you have any questions, comments, you can write them down and at the end of the presentation we'll have a Q&A. We can make a note of that and the presentation will have a Q&A. Thank you. Let's go now to the next presentation. Paraguay. She is the focus point of the agroecology ministry of agriculture and livestock in Paraguay. Juanita, we're going to share your presentation and you let us know when we need to flip the slides. Thank you. In 15 minutes I will let you know when you only have 5 minutes to finish. Thank you. Good morning everyone. First of all congratulations for this initiative and the different countries that are contributing and sharing their experiences and knowledge about agroecology. Either technical or rovers or experts especially on the topic and I would like to thank the invitation on behalf of the technical committee that promotes organic production especially the deputy minister of agriculture belonging to the ministry of agriculture of Paraguay because it is the deputy minister leading this committee on promoting organic production and agroecological production and I'd like to tell you also that this committee is made up by representatives of the public sector and also of the private sector. So it is in this context in order to start this presentation it is clear that the image on the left it's a store where organic products are sold with SDG certification and on the right you see dissemination activity regarding agroecology and organic production. Next one please. In terms of the challenges how I believe we can consider instrument of public policy however we still have a major challenge of actually implementing these instruments and especially having a technical team that is dynamic and committed to working in agroecology. These instruments are the national strategy and the national plan this plan was developed already in 2008 and the agreed upon national plan was developed based on the first developed SDG. And they were developed in a participatory way. In order to find out who the stakeholders are not only involved but also committed in all this process that started before 2008 way earlier than 2008 and I'd like to highlight here the private sector such as for example the Paraguayan organic production chamber also Paraguay Organic that is a trade association that facilitates access of growers and producers organizations into markets also mentioning the rural network and the other NGOs that support and that supervise the implementation of these instruments related to public policy that I've mentioned and of course the private companies that are making the economies more dynamic in these territories. Obviously I should also mention international cooperation and then the FAO joined in the last three years other corporations that set up the mission of China and Taiwan. I also want to highlight the active participation of the producers that have participated directly or indirectly in the preparation of these instruments as well as in collecting data and apart from these two instruments of public policy the national plan we also have another instrument which is the National Program on Organics, DNO recently developed but that has not yet been approved next slide please next slide please next slide please next slide please what is the instance that is led by the process is the technical committee that promotes organic production it is the only technical instance but let me clarify that is developed to promotion to promote and to advise organic production of the country although this technical instance is not that doesn't operate as a cooperative but it has an annual plan that is specific to foster this topic such as technical tours, seminars and field guidelines our committee also participates in technical instances such as the Inter-American Commission on Agriculture and the Latin American Network for outreach services that are also interested in the agroecology topic coordinated with some of the services and the active participation in the technical group GT8 which will set up a working group to deal with organic production issues and facilitating trade among the countries so in this regard I can tell you as well that the latest data collection conducted within the framework of a consulting service that has been also led by the NGO which is a member of this technical committee conducted a data collection regarding organic production in agroecological and you can see that we have close to almost 38,000 organic and agroecological growers and producers that have an organic certification close to 26,000 producers are working on the agroecology not necessarily in the transition but already in agroecology at least here in Paraguay we work the organic and agroecological are working regardless of the fact that we may have agreements or disagreements because we see that the collective efforts open up opportunities to us. Next slide Valentina please as to the legal and regulatory framework that regulate these public policy instruments we have this is a lot of that fastest in this control this is how a committee has been set up at JZDQ 45 37 and 2010 both the organic and agroecological production as well as the setting up of this technical committee as well as the national plan that I mentioned earlier all these instruments have a resolution let's say the promotion I'm highlighting the promotion although it is not a member of our committee a member from the legal point of view this entity is the one that controls organic control and Senave actively participates with us in the meetings that we hold with the members of the promotion committee because we know that by joining our efforts it is possible to deal with this in a more harmonious way everything related for example to the SPG certification we also have the Paraguayan standard for the production and the recipients of these work are the family farmers which is the target group of the differentiated policies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock next one Valentina please regarding the strategic pillars four minutes as to the strategic pillars of this national agreed plan there are seven strategic areas in which we consider the markets organizational development institutional strengthening research, innovation and others next one please so as to specific actions that have been developed that we are supporting either directly or indirectly we have the SPG that for more than two years has been working to achieve a standardization of standards with Brazil for example we also work in a certification proposal we have conducted the the development of courses for promoters both in total property and organic production and what has been conducted in the technical group of eight Paraguay to import sugar next one Valentina so really it is somewhat difficult to assess social impact or economic and social and environmental impact that derives from implementing public policies because we're not doing it yet with all that in the context of a measure that is called agreeing competitiveness with the support of JZ we worked until recently on collective branding SPG certification and third party certification as a result we then have growers or producers associations that have their collective brands are one of them with geographic indications and also with collective brands related to agriculture that was actively developed with the support of JZ also we are working with a digitization project of family farming projects with irrigation remote sensing and recently we developed a seminar on organic production and agroecological organic production next one okay so I think among the challenges and opportunities first we have the implementation of public policy instruments that keep on working on alliances with the private sector academia with international cooperation organizations these spaces are really important and quite rich and organic and agroecological production undoubtedly contributes to a facing climate change so the next steps that I'd like to share with you and this illustration we are working hard to achieve the level of a technicalism that works on all these processes on agroecology and organic production and we believe that we must also insist on the awareness building of high decision making levels and I'll stop here thank you very much for the opportunity thank you Juanita for being with us today and sharing Paraguay's experience of course it's quite valuable for the region and it's a benchmark for many more countries thank you Juanita for the benefit of time we're going to go straight to Argentina that will be presented by Veronica Lostano she is a RAF coordinator by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura Familiar Capesina from Argentina she doesn't have a PowerPoint presentation ok perfect can you see it please let me know if you can see it yes we can see it but not in in slideshow mode yes ok let me now yes we see the same thing now it looks good now we see it perfect well thank you good morning everyone thank you very much for this opportunity well the title of this presentation agroecology for us this is a process a dynamic one that does not have a destination or an end but it's a means it's a path in terms of what we want to define as what we expect from agroecology in that sense we believe that agroecology is recovering the creative act of production that's why we believe it's so important not to lose sight of who should be the protagonist of this agroecological process and in that regard I should mention that today is October 12th which we commemorate a historical milestone of our content and in the memory of the resistance that gave birth to agroecology food sovereignty and this other possible world I just wanted to mention this and to recognize because if we talk about agroecology today although there was a lot of reluctance there were many proposals of indigenous family farming especially in our continent that proposes to work and allows us to be here discussing it today I'm going to emphasize on two specific pillars that we consider key to the development of agroecology and for agroecology transition first of all here in Argentina we have something that we can't escape it which is security and land tenure and we cannot discuss an agroecological transition process if most of the producers do not have certainty regarding that tenure secondly we believe seeds without native local seeds we cannot develop agroecology or to resume agroecology in our continent so my presentation today will focus on land tenure and native and local seeds and the public policies and how we address these topics that we believe are the necessary base for the agroecology process of course we need to mention mile inputs and the adequate of course a fair trade all of this in the context of a gender perspective with specific policies for the youth and for women and participatory guarantees a process that we can strengthen can provide for the organization of the sector of course this was the sector that gave birth to agroecology and the state that has been presented through public policymaking that has been sustainable in time first of all I would like to talk about tenure, land tenure in our country we have a historical issue of land migration in the last 100 years that never stopped new migration to the cities and we have very precarious and land tenure in most of our territory indigenous communities and farmers communities and we also have another major problem the issue of least ignoring that most of the population come from our neighboring countries and they are in a very precarious situation that doesn't allow us which is a major obstacle to be able to developing agroecology transition I'm showing a drawing by Carlos Julio that for us has to do with that with the roots of our farmers and indigenous families the territory of the linkages that are necessary to develop these changes or resuming some of the ancient knowledge of our people and in that sense we have different policies regarding land one that has to do with comprehensive addressing of territorial conflicts with the current state and also solving issues and supporting the families or cases that are being addressed and being followed up on the other hand we were able to build a georeferencing tool regarding land tenure of indigenous and farmers of agriculture led by the size and origin of our country that opened a tendering process and we were sent to one or was awarded a project and this tool was developed which is called STILJET which is about to collect all the information held by different institutions either CENASA, LATESI to be able to start developing a current dynamic mapping which information can be displayed to improve the public policy of land tenure and finally we would like to tell you that based on our historical this is one of the articles of the law that availability of a land bank to make them available to family farmers this can be before and after in terms of ensuring or providing security regarding land tenure to our producers the other topic that I wanted to mention is the local and native seed since our president Miguel Aguilas took office we started working on seed re-creating a program that is called CEMILLAR that tries to add value to the work of our families of farmers in the improvement of the seeds based on that program we were able to highlight the current status we had information about this native seed we were able to highlight different aspects also based on something that we did with INTA the consumption of seeds in family farming we know that we have lots of potential to develop because indigenous and family farming in Argentina uses local and native seeds to a large extent and that is the kickoff to start recovering that diversity based on CEMILLAR's work and strong inter-institutional worker with INTA National Seeds Institute with INTA with mean seed with many institutions we sometimes lots of public policy with lots of interinstitutional work because the sector that we need to work for needs that we believe that is the only way for public policies to be preserved in time so from this process I'd like to thank thanks to couple of seminars we organized as a pro-temporary chair we discussed this topic of seeds we found that Argentina was lacking behind in terms of legislation and regulation on local native seeds we didn't have a definition of native seeds so thanks to that process last year we have a specific resolution for native seeds which will allow family rural and indigenous farming that will allow trademark to register these seeds for marketing purposes we have several registrations along the country and we have high hopes for the end of the year you have 5 minutes left thank you our historical restoration land is a center for native local seeds we are implementing 6 centers supported by the Ministry of Public Works we are building these 200 square meter buildings with a lab and different areas for storage and season of family rural and indigenous farming local and native seeds these will have a co-management group among the national public agencies and search groups and local representatives of family farming and local communities the core of this program we believe co-management which is critical because that is recognizing the historical role of farmers in the preservation of seeds we were also formally recognizing the so-called guardians of seeds let me say that as an institute back in 2021 we call upon several agencies and the academia to build a bill for promotion of agriculture which was submitted to the House of Deputies which is still under discussion I will tell you your questions later so thank you for the opportunity thank you Veronica for your presentation thank you for bringing topics which are common to agroecology such as a chapter also supplement what the previous two speakers addressed so thank you Veronica to stay in the session to take your questions at the end of the session now we will have the presentation from Uruguay by Federico Sierra with the alternate focal point for RIAF Uruguay in the Ministry of Agriculture in Uruguay Federico you have 15 minutes I will let you know 5 minutes before the end of your time well good morning to all thank you very much for inviting me to participate the presentations of the partners that have preceded me and well we will present the situation of Uruguay well I will present it from the direction of rural development of the Ministry of Agriculture which is where I work and then I will explain where the Honorary Commission of the National Agriculture of which at the beginning I said technical secretary of that commission today I am not but well I will present it from from the direction of rural development and also from a broader view well tell them that in Uruguay a situation of agroecology or organic production in a broader sense there are more than 2 million certificates without the margin of those 2 million hectares which are more than 10% of the surface of the country productive surface of the country which are 16 million hectares approximately basically correspond to non-familiar livestock and it is this certification of third part for export, organic certification basically it is the thickness of the surface certified as organic however there is also a certified sector actually I will explain it later certified by the guarantee of the agroecology in Uruguay which certifies some amelie farms livestock farms but these are fruit vegetable farms small farming the family part livestock growers make the primary phase they do not sell finished product they do not sell export cattle because these are mainly the task of corporate or producers and certification by 2020 was 133 farms 115 certified participatory center and the agroecology network even though there was an increase although there has been a drop in the last few years I will explain you why but the surface area remained almost the same in terms of the evolution of the agroecological food there has been a more dramatic increase at the national level thinking of the domestic market that is especially vegetables and fruit products 99% I would say 99% is domestic market there has been a good increase in the demand of agroecological products in Uruguay it's a series of situations I will not elaborate on all of them but the status of agroecology today is based on traditional farming before the revolution we don't have indigenous production or indigenous farming there is some but it's not visible many traditional practices have been recovered with the growth of agroecology there has been a growth in producers there were the pioneers in agroecology such as the Uruguayan agroecology network starting in 2000 the national network the native and local seeds network the orchards network there is an association of consumers now which was established around 2010 consumers of agroecological products at the academia level there has been some there is a history of over 30 years and these movements that led to the situation we have today that organization those organizations from the civil society a lot for certain achievements of milestone in terms of agroecology in 2008 we have ministry decreased the ministry of agriculture creating the national certification system for organic and agroecological production and therefore they guarantee participatory system and this is audited by the ministry of agriculture civil society continued to organize demanding the approval of agroecology law so in December 2008 a law was enacted with the general interest and the creation of a national commission and a national plan for the promotion of agroecology rules and regulations were enacted in 2019 and processes are not linear sometimes are progress, there are also some setbacks in 2021 the license was repealed and it seems that next year there will be an agreement for them to recognize these as a certification systems even though they continue to work as an internal mechanism then a national plan for agroecology was established to prepare the national plan for agroecology and to manage this plan the committee was set out by the law with the involvement of various public agencies agriculture environment, health social development, research organizations rural training organizations civil society organization with the history in agroecology so in September 2019 the commission was established they prepared a first draft of the plan in February 2020 the preparation of this national plan just the delegates are not enough so we need to match wider base of knowledge organizations agencies not only the members therefore there were certain groups that were put together along various theme lines and they prepared the plan over 100 people working on the preparation of this plan these groups work on different theme lines as you see in the breakdown promotion of agroecological production access and distribution these products, genetic resources training, research and dissemination governance and social dialogue which then became communications theme lines series of programs and projects which I will not elaborate on there is a link you will find in the ministry web page you just look up for agroecology national plan this is access distribution genetic resources training, research and dissemination and communications which as I said used to be governance but now it's communication this is so because the first draft was a previous administration government change because the plan was reframed was renegotiated in the commission with certain difficulties and constraints but led to a new version of the plan with some changes, not dramatic changes but still some modifications this is this is this is maybe we can elaborate on these topics during the Q&A you have about five minutes in terms of challenges the principal challenge is the tension among the various perceptions of agroecology that's the first challenge there is no agreement especially among organizations some research organizations and the academia there is different conceptions and definitions a set of techniques including other dimensions that is the more comprehensive view and that's the existing tension as seen in the results of the implementation of the plan so we have a minute budget 1.5 million pesos per year $30,000 which is good for dissemination but not for the implementation which would require millions of commission to start the operation and then there are certain for the promotion of agroecological transition pushed from the ministry which are not part of the plan even though they promote agroecological transition and they didn't go through the governance of the commission so there are certain two parallel tracks institutional action and civil society organizations looking for resources from to implement their own action so there are some sort of two tracks with a little context with the lack of training in agroecology and in the different universities of little R&D on agroecology we compare the budget of conventional agriculture and then agroecology things are clear lack of a technical assistance I never said this but the main subject of agroecology in the national plan is the lack of army family production that's set by law there's also a lack of a proper regulatory framework or production of small animals small scale slaughtering bio inputs and there is a lack of political position and political vision of agroecology as the alternative for sustainability of family production I would say the only one but that's my own personal opinion and there's development and opportunities this is part of the public agenda basically we have 93% of the urban population therefore when there are some environmental problems affecting the urban population everybody is aware we have of course a case of water which will run out of water pollution of water sources out in the beaches and then there is a sign of bacteria and then it becomes important the questioning of the prevailing model organizations of agroecological producers with a long background long history a critical mass of agroecological movement which is growing is the academia there are experiences of many producers in agroecological production there is a certain regulatory framework although it's sufficient we have a national plan of agroecology which is about to be implemented and there are some developments of agroecological based practices using agroecology and conventional production which have been developed although not implemented has an integrated concept but these also would be part of the foundation the build up of knowledge at the scientific and academic level and the country, Uruguay has a great opportunity the number one resource is the natural pasture which is the foundation of sustainable livestock and then there is a huge opportunity for scaling agroecology quite easily so that's an opportunity for us and I would finish my presentation here but this is a very long talk very much thank you Federico very clear opportunities but this poses in agroecology and farming many of the challenges are shared with other countries in order to increase budgets developing regulations and I'd like to highlight two topics the last part about increasing research and technology development and the lack of academic training because one of the four activities is to link agroecology which is one of the questions that we need to address with our panelists but thank you Federico we are going to go now to the last presentation today I'd like to offer the floor to Carlos Bermont who is a technical coordinator of agrofarm projects we are going to flip the slides let us know when to do it and you have 10 minutes I will let you know when you have only 3 minutes left to close your presentation thank you good morning everyone and thank you for the opportunity of communicating this is the agrofarm project the presentation has 3 chapters the first one what we call the elements that motivate transition to agroecology or organic farming from the context of family farming the second chapter which is limitations for family farming to actually transition in the last chapter the main about the quality instruments that according to agrofarm would be necessary in the countries so that somehow the experiences can be expanded and with that to achieve a more general transformation of the food systems in the region next one please the main element at least motivated from the agrofarm point of view what have been the experiences of developing business plans in our organizations that work with agroecology and organic production and the reason why family farmers want to share these processes the first one is to have access to the variety of food for the family to reduce the exposure of families to chemical inputs that were traditionally used important health related issues especially the more intensive production it is that they needed to recover some productive resources that intellectual systems have lost their quality they have been mostly polluted some soil and water to lower cost of the chemical and so that in turn do need to increase dosages and even then they cannot control pests or diseases in a reasonable manner to value the products due to a change in the conception of the quality of the products that the consumers have achieved that not only value will be appearing but how that product has been produced the chance of actually gaining more value going back some of those diversified systems that can face issues and market issues because of being more adapted to specific areas that in specific conditions undergo crisis due to commercial and environmental issues and finally something that is also on the head of the Petrific Authority that is leveraging this and the countries in the case of some environmental services provided as an additional way of creating income for the families those will be some of the reasons why family farmers individually or in collective contexts that this is the way to follow the next one please Where are the farmers and their organizations this is some of the reasons why in many cases there is a lack of a specific knowledge of positive experiences lack of productive systems lack of a system that works but they are not able to for which it is necessary as mentioned in the previous presentations interesting processes of exchanging experiences and the training of technicians that can actually give other farmers the information first hand and also give them some tranquility towards the interest of this issue this is the process to be followed it's a process it's not an immediate change and it's a process in which they will find difficulties that are unpredictable and they will need to work on those then there are some limitations many times as we have heard clear both in terms of material or bio-inputs that after all either stop or slow down the whole process but also achieving some certification levels that guarantee that those products are produced differently there are problems in terms of quantity the timeliness of what those services are how often you can have access to those at any time the cost at which you can get them based on that scarcity another important element is transition timing is not a smile even in the case of even faster production systems at least what Oklahoma has been able to do so far it's never less than three years and it's close to five years actually it depends very much on different industries but it's a slow timing and that requires addressing the difficulty in actually building the base for income that are some requirements in order to systematize the work in the plots and to make decisions especially in last-stop management that assumes some investment in order to make sure that these systems actually operate well irrigation system sources of water for example but are not easy to fund with the economy of the farmers many times there's a lack of how sales channels operate so there's a product produced but then the value improvement is not captured and that is also a difficulty many times information about what are the next steps in terms of achieving certifications either through participatory systems or by third parties the decision is not achieved easily and there's a need to work in the system as well and finally as we know there's a time in which income is lost because there are systems in which everybody knows or even knows the difficulties and there's a learning curve to be addressed and that assumes learning both in terms of production and in terms of the trade itself and that is something that needs to be addressed next time, next one please addressing some of the elements that promote family farming in order to go into these production systems and in turn the issues they find when they try to work down that path what we have is a sort of identification of the things that should be considered in our current public policy so that these processes are dynamic with the lowest level of loss of farmers that need to be involved in these is the first one I believe was mentioned several times one needs a technical, competent assistance there's not an abundance of professionals that are duly trained and that are experienced in these topics and systems and many times those places that need this type of support they do not trust them and they do not give any guarantees of the recommendations that they are being given and that of course has a negative impact on the process the exchange of experiences between those who did it already and achieved something positive those who are going to do it soon is seen as a core tool beyond the existence of a professional seeing another one as one that already did it of course knowing what is the process and where they found the problems and the importance of the support of co-innovation connected those that did it already know the scientific knowledge it is important to support the development of bioemports and as we heard the availability of quality seeds this is key because in the end the process needs to be certified on the basis of using seeds and in those that have the right quality and many times maybe in the biofertilizers for example when you want to try to use them there are difficulties even for a formal type of trading because the product is made by somebody but it's not really standardised this affects all this process definitely when it's from reimbursable and non-reimbursable mechanisms are adapted to the transition process that these are the investments that are significant sometimes with a slow maturation process so it is important to bear that in mind and to adapt to the financing tools if you want to procure them somehow those who make decisions regarding the purchase recognise the value of different products and it will be very interesting in the future the allocation of additional budgets but they use a different part of the public project in order to develop a production system beneficial for society and the paying for the recovery of soil water or the maintenance of biodiversity in fragile environments which is to be certified also becomes something key in the policy making that is not only somehow addressed at recovering family production or the economic effort to develop these new systems through selling products but also environmental services that is provided to the environment where they exist a participatory certification system with all the uncertainties and uncertainties and formalities that need to be implemented that is important because many times certification of third parties are extremely expensive for the society to achieve a local, national and even regional and maybe a challenge for RAF is to do all that work with the records and the purchasing is to find a common design base and the recognition of that allows the countries to have certified products with low certification costs opening up marketing possibilities not only in the closest market but within the region of course information and dissemination of the potential of these products regarding consumption and advantages projects of health and also quality of food school feed programs and healthcare providers and the support to the United States themselves around which these producers inevitably need to congregate in order to lower transaction costs and achieve the knowledge that means that the United States need support to introduce their capabilities so that their own affiliates can impact on the process and more generic of these types of products okay basically I believe those are the three aspects of the presentation that I wanted to share once again thank you for the opportunity thank you Carlos for your excellent presentation and not only learn what are the challenges you need in order to promote agroecology and family farming but also what are the challenges from family farming organizations to achieve this successful transition thank you once again for your point of view now we will have 10 minutes for Q&A I have two questions which I would like to ask to all the speakers today first on what incentive should be given to producers or to encourage the youth to return to the countryside and the second is many of the presentations address agroecology it's similar to agroecology and family farming or organic production but in the statistics from governments that is also true Juanita addressed that those two questions I would like to start with Sebastian briefly because we have only 10 minutes so that you can address this question thank you Valentina well I think I I believe one of the main incentives for the youth is showing that the life of the country is possible through agroecological production today progress has been made elements that have improved life quality in the rural world that means that you will see an opportunity for development other than the cities in other countries in Latin America as far as I know we also have this situation not only the young people are born in countries that they want to go to the city but we also have the other way around young people from the city encouraged by this special awareness of the environment and the healthier lifestyle they want to go to the country side the best way to encourage them is that today we have more tools live in the rural area through this type of production rather than production style but the lifestyle it is possible and that for a lot of stakeholders today being articulated for this to happen not only governments also companies making a contribution to this transition process and of course farmers organizations that have a central role without farmers or associations the social fabric will not stand so it is also important to let the young people know that besides aspiring to be in the lifestyle they also have to be part of these territorial governance which is very important so that I believe it would be interesting that we at INDAP we also have as as a strategic pillar working with the youth with the young people we've been as part of our programs we've targeted the resources in support of sustainability projects focused on the youth we've been quite successful in terms of their involvement this is a very highly motivated group by agriculture and many times this is all the other way around one main thing that the youth are not really interested but that's not so youth are pushing not driving this they're demanding this already and that means encouragement for organizations such as INDAP and others in support of agriculture so thank you Sebastián for your answer I'm happy to see that you're working on youth and agriculture Juanita, same couple of questions on youth and how to encourage producers to go for these practices because agriculture you address that in your presentation if you could offer an answer on the first question Carlos actually answered many of those factors but from dissemination it is critical to show and to prove rural dissemination is fundamental and for Paraguay the producers themselves they show those experiences those practices agroecology certified or maybe based on trust that they share those positive and negative experiences because with the negative experiences you avoid making the same mistakes that's how you learn and on the other hand during the pandemic the two doors in Paraguay there was this change dramatic change in terms of demand from consumers it used to be old people, 80, 70 years old with some diseases now it's young people demanding those type of food people in the gym, artists physicians there was a change there was a change over there unfortunately thank you your hand is up if you want to react to these questions please go ahead let's just comment on a view which probably this is not sound that nice but for farmers organizations which I represent today there is a connection between agriculture and youth it has to do with the fact that new production systems are offering the world the opportunity of not thinking living because there is an opportunity for a better life for them and a better income but sometimes we end up speaking the urban people who want to go to the rural areas to do agriculture for primary farmers organizations we shouldn't believe that we shouldn't promote that type of behavior which is not supporting family farms but it's a different thing the country where they see here as a business possibility this is a new form of life but not exactly what we are looking for as family farmers I mean it's trying to limit what type of youth are we talking about are we talking about the youth which is connected to family farming which is involved in this dialogue of policies rather than just generic youth thank you thank you Carlos for making that point which is important thank you for bringing that up Veronica, please go ahead back to Carlos we don't have that view we believe we need to create the conditions of wherever you are born you can decide where to live city or countryside with the dignity in Argentina we have lots of experiences with organizations that have supported the agroecology schools for all this is Santiago del Estero which is over 13 years over 13 years in place with lots of young people there rural and urban young people and in this process of showing a potential path I have two things this creative act I prefer to I believe one of the most successful tools of agroecology to entice people is to search, test, develop of course, get a guarantee we have to guarantee that that sustainably is sustainable from the economic point of view yet another thing is to do with the access to connectivity culture recreation of youth in the rural environment without those rights without those basic rights for youth we will not be able to make progress irrespective or fully developed agroeconomic systems in Argentina organic agriculture and agroecology is two different things by legislation and that here we have agroecology in family farm but in Argentina upon the suggestion from the institute of family farming there was a national office for agroecology and then the minister the minister of agriculture decided that decided to remove these from the ministry to move these into the ministry so as to cover everything so that's the area which is relevant for us thank you Veronica, the last panel member Federico no, it's just I believe that youth succession processes re-statement if they are not from the rural world there, I believe we have a foundation material foundation it's not a material foundation it has to to the valuing of the society of family farming it is the family farmers they discourage their children in order to stay farm we should also contribute to the spirit of it supported on this material foundation income, not only good incomes but also Veronica said from Argentina while having services to have a decent life in the rural environment that on the first question the second question well here in Uruguay depending on the stakeholder there might be a confusion sometimes tension on the they want to use the agriculture for ill-purposed goals and this conception of agriculture from social social movements that involves sustainability and therefore there is a big difference with organic we have had these discussions in this network with organic or agroecological producers but the confusion is so that the decree that was repealed that ministry resolution which was repealed which removes the powers of the SPG he refers to organic agroecological production as well as integrated production which means that there is a big confusion and I believe sometimes that's because people do not know and sometimes it's also intentional thank you Federico for answering these questions I know we have lots of questions to be answered but this conversation will continue on the next October 31st so I would like to close this session thank you Valentina I would like to thank Verónica, Sebastián, Juanita, Federico and Carlos thank you Casio for joining us and not even the possibility of speaking Valentina I believe was a wonderful meeting this is being recorded of course the agri-food industry cannot change food into an agroecological product they have tried during the last 20 years at the end of the line they cannot change that they cannot change something into agroecology regardless of the different organoleptic conditions but it is no longer easy rebuilding systems of territorial agri-food legacy this is one of the big contradictions and this is an opportunity for development of family farming I understand this the point of Argentinians who are highly urbanized 90 something percent in the cities and the the peri-urban sector they have been requesting a new system for agricultural production the and many other cases I like Carlos we all agree on what are the tools are required not only by the youth but in order to have an accelerated transition, a fast-track transition there are different interests at stake and that's why we have this is a protection of the regional consensus involving the technical assistance of the academia because we have to speed up 2030s way too close the numbers of malnutrition and hunger are still growing but we have initiatives, we have policies we need to build participatory systems that will protect the region there are processes and seals but there is a mismatch looking for this balance between the regulations and enabling this is like a pressure vessel there are processes all over the region but they don't have the budgets they don't have the guidelines they don't find they don't have the regulators and associated families farming and agroecology this is here to stay because if in this family we have all the stakeholders of agriculture it's not only the model but we don't know if everything else will be sustainable the world needs more and more agroecology but our focus is our family farming climate change is affecting everyone not only family farmers we have to clean the territories we need environmental services several things Casio for our next meeting our next week meeting we have a draft of certain guidelines and recommendations once again I would like to thank FAU it's wonderful what the platform is doing and the national plan of family farming this topic goes to all seven pillars of a pillar one of ecosystem of policies all the way down to the right dimensionality so thank you once again the government and the organizations for your participation thank you Lautaro for your closing remarks that's a very good summary of the importance of this discussion today and the next steps next October the 31st we will have the third session of this series of family farming dialogues we will be learning the global experiences of all of you who are involved today of course you are invited to join that session to continue with this dialogue and answer those questions that went unanswered today's session will be recorded in the platform so you can gain access to it and share that with those that might be interested so once again I would like to thank the speakers for your presentations for the commitment in the discussion and the commitment to continue to continue the efforts in this session into agriculture thank you and have a great afternoon see you next October the 31st