Over the past two years, grassroots organisations, including peasant, Indigenous, Afro-descendant, youth and women from different regions of Colombia have traced a route of articulation and advocacy to promote agroecology as a national public policy. Through a dialogue in the territories, they built a collective proposal for a National Agroecology Plan, strengthening the agroecological movement in the process.
Over the past 20 years, our organisation Tierra Libre has been working with rural and urban communities in the Cundinamarca, Caldas, Antioquia and Tolima territories. Our work was around different lines of political action such as the defence of water and territory, food sovereignty and agroecology, the strengthening of our territorial economies, and network building. In recent years, one of our commitments has been the creation of a national agroecology movement.
Agriculture in Colombia
In the past decades, an industrial agricultural model based on the Green Revolution has been promoted In Colombia and throughout Latin America. This model, characterised by the use of genetically modified organisms, agrochemicals and mechanisation, favours agribusiness and is pushed by multinationals such as Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta. This has affected peoples’ autonomy in their production methods, in their cultural traditions related to the land, and in practices of seed conservation and community exchange (trueque, or barter).
Our country has known different forms of resistance and struggle, including the promotion of food sovereignty
The situation in Colombia is further aggravated by over 50 years of internal armed conflict that was rooted in territorial disputes, the absence of the state in rural areas, insecurity in the territories, and drug trafficking. The very high concentration of land ownership and its use for extensive cattle ranching also limits food production, particularly in underutilised and degraded agricultural soils.
Despite these challenges, our country has known different forms of resistance and struggle, including the promotion of food sovereignty, the defense of water and land, the care, rescue and conservation of seeds, the promotion of local markets, and practices of exchange, barter and fair and solidary trade. These actions seek to strengthen people-led governance systems, community life plans and popular mandates.
Building the National Public Policy on Agroecology
In 2022, Colombia experienced a historic milestone with the election of a center-left government led by Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez as president and vice-president respectively. Their agenda is based on four main pillars:
- Total Peace: Aiming to turn the peace process into a state policy through dialogue and negotiation with all armed groups, along with the recognition of victimised communities.
- Economic Justice: Proposals for tax reform and other measures to ensure that the wealthiest sectors assume their fiscal responsibilities and increase public revenue.
- Social Justice: Aiming to broaden redistribution in favour of the most disadvantaged sectors, for example by prioritising initiatives such as ‘Zero Hunger’.
- Environmental Justice: Focusing on the transition from an extractivist and carbonised economy to a sustainable one by promoting sustainable food production, energy transition and nature conservation.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the innovation directorate started a dialogue to develop a public policy to support this agenda. This dialogue included an exchange on the political and technical aspects of agroecology and food sovereignty, and saw the participation of diverse NGOs, peasant and Indigenous communities, education institutions, business, and broader coalitions, for example the National Network of Family Farming (RENAF) and the Latin American Agroecological Movement (MAELA). The goal of our movements was to achieve an agroecology policy under the “Colombia World Power for Life” National Development Plan 2023-2026, which was under negotiation.
Towards a national public policy for agroecology
This was the lead-up to our first National Agroecology Meeting (ENA) in 2022, where we convened various actors involved in agroecology in order to establish a common agenda that would allow for significant transformations in rural Colombia. Since then, our approach has focused on integrating the knowledge, practices and know-how related to agroecology and other forms of agriculture for life, understanding these as diverse ways of integrating ecological thinking into peasant practices.
Throughout 2023, we organised regional agroecology meetings aimed at facilitating spaces for exchange and dialogue for grassroots organisations in the territories. These meetings identified socio-environmental conflicts and established common agendas at the local level to influence the national agroecology policy. The results of this process allowed us to collectively develop guidelines for a participatory, inclusive, consensual and autonomous public policy on agroecology.
Outcomes of the regional meetings
At the first meeting, in the Antioquia – Eje Cafetero region, 48 peasant, Indigenous and popular organisations exchanged their experiences with the promotion of agroecology over the past years. The declaration that resulted from this meeting states:
“Our territories have been hit by multiple social and environmental injustices, including hydroelectric projects, mining, monoculture forestry and agriculture under the Green Revolution model, extensive cattle ranching, urban expansion, and changes in agricultural land use among others. These generate a rupture in the socio-cultural dynamics of the communities; they also deepen inequality in access to land, affect food sovereignty and devastate the commons, destroying and polluting the environmental heritage. … Agroecology is a real possibility for cooling the planet and counteracting the hunger experienced by a large part of the population of our country, by stimulating local agri-food systems and solidarity-based economic circuits.”
ERA Antioquia Declaration, 2023
The second regional meeting took place in the San Gabriel Agro-food Peasant Territory in the southwest of the country and was attended by 50 representatives of 28 peasant and urban organisations related to agroecology, urban agriculture and agriculture for life. The meeting highlighted the need for the recognition and inclusion of peasants by government institutions in order to strengthen agroecological processes.
One major achievement was the establishment of a dialogue between the Ministry of Agriculture and the organisations that have historically championed agroecology
The third regional meeting, in central Colombia, was held at the Latin American Agroecology Institute María Cano in Viotá, Cundinamarca and was attended by delegates from 48 organisations. Several proposals were made, including the promotion of a social dialogue at local, regional and national levels on issues such as the right to food and food sovereignty, comprehensive agrarian reform, campaigns on the effects of agrotoxins, the diversification of agroecological production for environmental conservation, the promotion of agroecological training, the strengthening of peasant trainers and autonomous communication processes and the organisation of a second meeting in 2024 to strengthen regional initiatives.
In the political realm, one of the main achievements was the establishment of a dialogue table between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the organisations that have historically championed agroecology and food sovereignty. Another notable accomplishment was the alignment of different sectoral proposals within the agroecology framework, as well as the creation of a regional agenda that can influence national policies.
Currently, the development of the National Agroecology Plan is underway. This plan aims to promote initiatives and strategies to support agroecological transitions at the regional and territorial levels, to ensure the human right to food, to boost the local economy, and to contribute to climate resilience and territorial development.
The art of walking together
Colombia needs to mobilise its diverse agroecological expressions rooted in the connection with the land and local identity. These expressions are driven by transformative actors in each territory who have established networks that must be recognised and promoted at the national level. The country urgently needs to change its relationship with the environment, and agroecology offers the valuable practical experience that can form the basis for a national transition towards more sustainable practices. Additionally, it is also crucial to develop strategic plans based on political principles that foster structural socio-economic transformation.
Colombia needs to mobilise its diverse agroecological expressions rooted in the connection with the land and local identity
At Tierra Libre, we believe in building from the ground up, using proposals rooted in the history of communities. At the same time, we recognise the importance of a broad coordination that integrates the diversity of agroecological processes and approaches and will allow for the implementation of coherent actions at the national level.
Some notable challenges from our experience to date include coordinating joint agendas among different youth, Indigenous, peasant, and Afro-descendant sectors; creating political advocacy strategies that endure regardless of the political orientation of the government in power; and developing joint actions with the academic sector, which has different methods and needs.
Nationally, the challenges include the need for greater community-based organisation and the strengthening of territories to make advocacy and action more impactful. We must prioritise the articulation and unity of social movements as a fundamental political task to advance the transformations and changes the country seeks.
Author: Ivonne Florez Pastor has been a member of the social and political organisation Tierra Libre in Colombia for over 15 years. Contact: corporaciontierralibre2006@gmail.com
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This article is part of Issue 1-2024: Policies for Agroecology
