Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

COLLAGES OF BETTERMENT 189toward self-reliance (Smolders 2006).In practice, the human approach is applied to theconcept of the farmers’ field school (FFS), one of theinitiatives that SEARICE has implemented. An FFSuses a learn-by-doing approach with farmer groups. Itteaches them to apply what they have learned throughthe program to develop new activities to gain greatercontrol over local conditions.The communication patterns of the CBDC BoholProjectIn this section, I analyze the communication patterns ofthe CBDC Bohol project in order to understand howSEARICE encourages farmers to accept the CBDCprogram and to change their behavior from growing therice varieties promoted by state agencies to their ownrice varieties and how it convinces the general publicto accept and support farmers’ rights. The results andanalysis are organized into: target groups; the message;and communication methods.Target groupsThere are four levels of communication in this project:the community, national, regional and internationallevels. At the community level, SEARICE’s field staffidentified farmers in the seven communities as theproject’s main target group. The strategy is to strengthencommunity management of community agriculturalresources and to increase farm productivity.At the national, regional and international levels, thereare many target groups: farmers in other communities,other NGOs/academics, political leaders and partnersin service delivery. The communication strategy is toincrease awareness and technical and policy advocacycapacity at the mainstream level for plant geneticresources conservation, development and use, andagricultural policy-related issues. The approachesimplemented at these levels are networking, lobbying,advocacy and collaboration.MessagesMessages deal with both technical issues and policyissues. The technical messages sent to farmer-partners atthe community level and other farmers consist of threeimportant components. The first is the conservationand continuous utilization of, for example, communityseed banks and home gardens. The second deals withdevelopment, such as selecting and actual breedingaccording to farmer’s own breeding objectives. The lastone includes sustainable agricultural practices such asorganic agriculture and integrated farming systems.These messages are vital to the main target group becausethey can actually apply the knowledge they gain.“I first learned about breeding when SEARICEentered our barangay in 1996. In that training, theytaught us how to breed rice, and when I went backto our barangay, I immediately tried rice breeding.Rice breeding helped a lot in my farming since I wasable to have my own variety adapted to my fieldconditions. It is not hard for me now to find seedsto be planted in my field. I was also able to sharemy knowledge and methods in breeding with otherfarmers. They recognized the seeds that I developedas those developed by a farmer-breeder.” (CisenioSalces from Campagao, Bilar, SEARICE 2002).To deal with policy issues, SEARICE set up apolicy and information unit. The unit is involved inlobbying, advocacy and networking on issues relatedto biotechnology, intellectual property rights (IPR),biodiversity and plant genetic resources at the national,regional and international levels (SEARICE 2007).The policy issues are focused on the protection andpromotion of farmers’ rights and other issues that affectfarmer-partners. The main point of spreading thesepolicy issues is to claim farmers’ relationship with theland and their right to conserve, develop and freely shareplant genetic resources, to market agricultural products,to access technology and knowledge and to have theright to participate in decision making (SEARICE1996).At the Regional Conference on Sustainable CommunitybasedInitiatives as Expressions of Farmers’ Rights heldon 18 October 2006 in Tagbilaran City, SEARICElaunched the Rice Festival Declaration SupportingFarmers’ Rights for Food Security. Following is anexcerpt from the Declaration which highlights policyconcerns:“… Concerned about the absence of legislation orpolicies in many countries in support of farmers’ rightsto seeds and sustainable community-based initiativesas a means to enhance food security and contributeto poverty alleviation, and conscious of the need toprovide a supportive policy environment to promotefood security and poverty alleviation…(Rice FestivalDeclaration Supporting Farmers’ Rights for FoodSecurity, 18 October 2006).Another example of how effective messages can inspiretarget groups to take action comes from the communityAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows