Agriculture Concerns Bring Latin American Farmers to Miami
"There has been an invasion of products from other countries, and no state policies to protect small farmers. You can see the impact of trade in the huge migration of people leaving their lands, because they can't live there anymore." Bolivian farmer Zacarias Calatayud
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| Bolivian farmer Zacarias Calatayud. "The policy of the government is to open markets, not to help farmers... with the FTAA, this will get much worse." By: Chris Hufstader/Oxfam |
With the majority of rural people in Latin America and the Caribbean living in poverty, agriculture rules in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) are a focus of attention for farmers across the region. Many representatives from farmer organizations are in Miami to voice their concerns about how a more integrated trade system will affect them. Latin American and Caribbean farmers have seen how more liberal trade rules have affected farmers in Mexico over the last 10 years since the promulgation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and want to avoid similar problems for themselves.
Bolivian farmer Zacarias Calatayud has first-hand knowledge of the problems facing farmers in South America. He grows cacao and maize on his small farm in the Amazon basin, and is suffering from low prices as Bolivia has opened its markets. "There has been an invasion of products from other countries, and no state policies to protect small farmers," he said, noting that Bolivia has one of the most open economies in the region. "You can see the impact of trade in the huge migration of people leaving their lands, because they can't live there anymore."
Catalyud himself is struggling to keep his farm alive. "Before I could live off the farm, growing for myself and for the market," he explained. "But now I can't do this anymore. So I have to look for jobs to make money for clothing and food since farm prices have dropped so low."
Not content to accept this situation, Catalyud serves as the President of CIOEC-Bolivia, an Oxfam-funded network of 636 farmer cooperatives and agricultural organizations that represent 120,000 families. CIOEC helps these groups to sell directly to buyers, avoiding costly intermediaries and getting better prices. It also helps cooperatives improve their production, processing, and marketing, in order to add value to the crops they sell. CIEOC also helps farmers get better information about commodity prices and other news they need to better market their crops.
These farmer organizations are vulnerable if the FTAA is imposed on the region. Catalyud and others have no confidence the Bolivian government will help them survive. "The policy of the government is to open markets, not to help farmers," he said after attending trade policy meetings in Miami on Monday night. "And with the FTAA, this will get much worse."