Cotton Farmers Press for Trade Justice

Posted: 11 December 2005

Mozambique’s cotton farmers are calling for an end to harmful agricultural subsidies in Europe and the United States.

Cotton farmers in Mozambique found a creative way to communicate their concerns about unfair trade rules: They staged a live “Citizen’s Tribunal” in the studios of Radio Mozambique, and issued a call for reforms in global markets that will help them get a fair price for their crop.

The tribunal was held in Maputo and attended by 50 people from across Mozambique, including cotton farmers and government ministers. The event was broadcast live with commentary for three hours throughout the country on December 8, the week before the World Trade Organization’s Sixth Ministerial Conference, where trade rules for agriculture are on the agenda.

Like most countries in Africa, 70 percent of Mozambique’s population works in agriculture. Farmers in Mozambique are particularly concerned about subsidies paid to farmers in wealthier countries, which encourage overproduction of crops like cotton and sugar, which are then “dumped” on world markets. Since most farmers in the world do not get any government subsidies, they can’t compete when these surpluses cause prices to drop below what it costs them to grow their crops.

Farmers Speak Out

Low cotton prices directly affect more than 350,000 cotton-growing families in Mozambique, where average annual incomes are roughly $235. All together, about two million people in Mozambique are engaged in growing, processing, and exporting cotton. Several farmers testified at the Citizen’s Tribunal, including Cecelia Aly Said, a single mother and farmer from Niassa Province in the northern cotton-growing region of Mozambique. “I have to feed my children, yet I sell at low prices,” Said testified. “Who is going to buy exercise books for my children's education? Buyers are not helping us. We need better prices to survive.” Another farmer from the same region, Victor Agia, said “We sweat to the last drop of blood...in the end we are getting nothing!”

Following the on-air hearing on agriculture subsidies, the Citizen’s Tribunal issued a statement, saying that “Continued agricultural subsidies are in breach of WTO rules, and the UN International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. It is therefore morally and legally unfair.” The “verdict” reached by the body also asked the government of Mozambique to research how unfair trade is harming the country’s farmers, and to adopt policies that will improve prospects for rural development, invest in roads, and support farmer organizations. The statement also asked the government to promote trade rules that allow the country to protect its agricultural sector while it adjusts to changes in global trade.

According to Davie Malungisa of Oxfam America, the Citizen’s Tribunal was an important step in Mozambique’s emerging trade justice movement. “The farmers now see how their state of poverty is connected to trade policy issues,” said Malungisa. “And the presence of other civil society partners and officials from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture gave them hope. Three of the cotton farmers then traveled to Hong Kong, bringing with them a clear mandate and a national perspective on this crucial issue.”

New Cotton Grower Network

The day after the Citizen’s Tribunal in Maputo, the attention of cotton farmers turned to Nampula Province, and the official launch of the National Union of Cotton Producers. The organization was established in a joint effort by Oxfam America and several other farmer organizations including National Union of Peasant Farmers and the Association of Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, as well as the government’s National Cotton Institute. Its mission is to consolidate a variety of efforts to help cotton farmers, including technical support to improve their growing practices, as well as credit for financing their farming.

Another important area of activity will be helping farmers voice their concerns in policy discussions about cotton seed prices, government positions on international trade in cotton, and rural development policy generally. Farmer voices have been notably absent in these policy dialogues in recent years. A better organized farmer union with trained leaders ready to engage in setting policies that directly affect them will help farmers improve their prospects to earn a better living.