Background Study 8 Farmers' Rights in Peru - Farmers' Perspectives

This is why Peru was chosen for this case study. The aim has been to contribute to the debate as well as to practical efforts aimed at realizing Farmers' Rights in Peru, while also generating information useful for other countries. As such the report is a contribution to the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Plant Treaty), which aims at the conservation and sustainable use of crop genetic resources, the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use for sustainable agriculture and food security, and provides for the realization of Farmers' Rights. In the context of the Plant Treaty, realizing Farmers' Rights means enabling farmers to maintain and continue to develop crop genetic diversity as they have done since the dawn of agriculture, as well as recognizing and rewarding them for their indispensable contribution to the global pool of genetic resources. The realization of Farmers' Rights is a precondition for the maintenance of crop genetic resources, which in turn forms the basis of all food and agricultural production in the world. The continued maintenance of agricultural biodiversity is particularly important for traditional small-scale farming, on which large numbers of people in Peru and in other developing countries depend for their livelihoods. The realization of Farmers' Rights is a central means to improving the livelihood of farming families and as such an important contribution to poverty alleviation in rural areas.