Presence of ForestAction Nepal and Alliance of Agriculture for Food (AAF) in Organic World Congress 2024

Presence of ForestAction Nepal and Alliance of Agriculture for Food (AAF) in Organic World Congress 2024

  • December 6, 2024

Team members from the ForestAction/AAF secretariat were actively engaged in various processes of the IFOAM Organic World Congress 2024.The World Congress is organised by IFOAM every three years involving thousands of organic farmers, producers, researchers, advocates, and policy experts from around the world. Activities such as pre-conference, the General Assembly, side-events and organic exhibition are included in the congress. This year, the Congress was held at Nanhua University, Taiwan, from November 30 to December 6, 2024 comprising of pre-conference, congress and general assembly of IFOAM. The congress (2-4 December) included various plenary sessions, parallel modules, and workshops where the team had an active presence.

A poster entitled “Walking Training: A Transformative Approach to Capacity Building in Agroecology” was presented by Sindrela Dewan and Srijana Poudel. It introduced the concept of walking training, its significance, methodology, and the process of participant selection for the training. Additionally, the poster highlighted the lessons learned from previous training.
Two papers were also presented by team members in a parallel session entitled fostering organic growth through policy building on December 4, 2024. Krishna Prasad Poudel, along with Mahesh Badal, presented on ‘Analysis of Policy Provisions and Government Programs for Agroecology Promotion in Nepal,’ while Sujata Tamang and Dipesh Nepal presented on ‘Evidence-Based Policy Advocacy Pathways: Learning from Nepal’.

As the secretariat of the Alliance of Agriculture for Food, the team also organised a workshop on “Regeneration of Mountain Agriculture: Future Solution for Sustainable Food System”. Krishna Prasad Poudel was the keynote speaker of the workshop, moderated by Sujata Tamang.

In the Workshop, Mr. Paudel highlighted the specific characteristics of mountain-specific agriculture and industrial agriculture and discussed on the situation arising from the holistic development approach in agriculture and how mountain agriculture is particularly impacted on a greater scale. The crucial role of regenerative agriculture in addressing the specific challenges faced by mountain regions in achieving sustainable food systems, especially in the context of climate change was also discussed in his presentation.

He also shared points for reflection and future pathways. During the open discussion, possible innovative solutions, responses at policies and programs level and practices that farmers and local communities are adopting in response to the current crisis through regenerative agroecological approaches were discussed and shared.