Scientists, Farmers to Hound CGIAR Meet with Protests

For the first time in years, agricultural researchers and scientists will hold their annual CGIAR meeting outside Washington – in Makati City – this week. But other Filipino scientists, environmentalists and peasant groups will hold an alternative conference and launch actions in what promises to be a brief period of protests before the entire nation retires for the Nov. 1 holidays. 

BY GERRY ALBERT-CORPUZ
Bulatlat.com

Thousands of peasant protesters who came all the way from provinces outside Metro Manila converge at the Don Chino Roces Bridge (formerly Mendiola) on Oct. 21 to denounce the lowering of palay price and the misery that it creates among millions of rice farmers. An American flag is tied around the giant effigy of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as protesters burn it to symbolize their indignation.

The international meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) on Oct. 28-Nov. 1 will be hounded with parallel activities and protest actions by peasant and scientist groups from the Philippines and other countries.

Leaders of the Resistance and Solidarity Against Agrochemical TNCs (Resist! Agrochem TNCs) announced this move in a news briefing yesterday as foreign delegates are preparing to open the CGIAR meeting in Makati this week.

The CGIAR, an international group of research institutions, is reportedly funding the UP Los Baños-based International Rice Research Institute’s (IRRI) study on hybrid rice.

Resist! leaders said a People Street Conference will be held Oct. 30 as an alternative to the CGIAR annual general assembly. To be attended by some 200 local and foreign delegates from the La Via Campesina in Southeast and East Asia and the International Alliance Against Agrochemicals, the street conference will expose the “domestic and international crimes of research institutes like IRRI to farmers and the environment.”Joining them are non-government groups Masipag and GRAIN. The foreign delegates will come from Colombia, Mexico, India and Thailand, street conference organizers said.Rafael Mariano, chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement in the Philippines), dared the CGIAR to take a deeper look at what IRRI did in more than 50 years of existence. "The experiences of Third World countries with IRRI and other international research and training centers prove that CGIAR activities did not contribute to improve the productivity in agriculture," Mariano said.

Mariano also co-coordinates the International Alliance Against Agrochemicals.

Impact on CGIAR

Dr. Giovanni Tapang, president of the UP-based Agham and convenor of Resist! said that for many years, the annual meeting of CGIAR has been held in Washington D.C far away from farmers and affected communities.

"This time we have the opportunity to take our grievances and problems directly to the decision makers," Dr. Tapang said. Peasants and their advocates in many countries have protested against and exposed the problems of CGIAR institutions, he also said. "We will take this opportunity to join our voices in the global grassroots protest against CGIAR and the interlocking directorates of hungry super profit-agrochemical corporations," the young scientist said. Dr. Romeo Quijano, professor of Pharmacology and president of the Pesticide Action Network-Philippines (PEAN-Philippines) shared to foreign and local participants the country's experience with IRRI in the last 50 years, while peasant support groups like SEARICE, Masipag and Sibat told their experiences in development work on farmer alternatives and practices on research and agricultural systems. Protest mood

Also taking part in the protests are peasant activists from Kalipunan ng Samahang Magsasaka sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK). They plan to march to IRRI's laboratory and office in Los Baños to assert the people's rights and control on agriculture and call for pro-farmer research systems which is the opposite of CGIAR-supported IRRI. "IRRI must go, the same way we call for a global halt on CGIAR-backed research activities and related works that only bring global disasters and national calamities to farmers all over the world," conference organizers said.  Bulatlat.com

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