The Co-Chairs of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) Rakesh Chandra Agrawal (India) and Svanhild-Isabelle Batta Torheim (Norway) presented the updated inventory of national measures, best practices, and lessons learned and drew attention to The Options for Encouraging, Guiding, and Promoting the realization of Farmers’ Rights (The Options). After extensive negotiations, the Governing Body welcomed the work of AHTEG, took note of the Options for Encouraging, Guiding and Promoting the Realization of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty (the Options), noting that options under Category 10 on legal measures were Co-Chairs’ proposal, and requested the Secretary to publish the Options. Furthermore, the Governing Body invited Contracting Parties and other stakeholders to consider using the Options, in accordance with their needs and priorities. This was seen among the Contracting Parties as an important milestone for fulfilling the Treaty’s mandate.

Importantly, the resolution that was adopted at this Ninth Session on Farmers’ Rights, Resolution 7/2022, requested the Secretary, subject to the availability of financial resources, to organize a Global Symposium to share experiences and discuss possible future work on Farmers’ Rights, and welcomed the offer of the Government of India to host it. Many Contracting Parties expected the symposium to provide visibility and a breakthrough, considering India’s leadership in developing national legislation on Farmers’ Rights. Additionally, the Governing Body requested the Secretary to make an assessment on the state of implementation of Article 9 of the International Treaty and to present criteria and an outline of the assessment at its Tenth Session and the full report at its Eleventh Session. It was stated that such assessment should be based on the compliance reports and on submissions in the Inventory (see below) as well as on other relevant information.

Further, the Secretary was also requested to strengthen collaboration between the Treaty and other units and partners that work for the promotion of Farmers’ Rights within and outside FAO, and the broader UN, including with international human rights bodies in order to promote the realization of Farmers’ Rights. The Governing Body also called upon the Secretary to include in its multi-year programme of work (MYPOW) for possible impact of Digital Sequence Information /Genetic Sequence Information (DSI/GSI) on Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty.

Finally, Contracting Parties and all relevant stakeholders, especially farmers’ organizations, were invited to submit to the Secretary, for inclusion in the Inventory, or update, national measures, best practices, and lessons learned for national implementation of Article 9 of the International Treaty, as appropriate and subject to national legislation.

Several side events related to Farmers’ Rights took place during the session. A side event entitled Community seed banks, agrobiodiversity and Farmers’ Rights: Opportunities to improve food and nutrition security (PDF, 187KB) presented research findings from the DIVERSIFARM project. The side event was organised by Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), Norway, University of Cape Town in South Africa, Mekelle University in Ethiopia, The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in Nepal, German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture and Norwegian University of Life Sciences.