At the 44th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe (ERC44), held on 2-3 October in Budapest, Mariam Jorjadze spoke on behalf of the Nyéléni Europe and Central Asia Food Sovereignty Network, delivering two interventions that reflect the collective positions of peasants, pastoralists, fisherpeople, Indigenous Peoples and food sovereignty movements across the region.
Her statements addressed two key agenda items: “Strategic policies and approaches towards more efficient, inclusive, sustainable and resilient agriculture” and “Advancing gender equality in the region: update on the progress made.”
Both interventions underline that true transformation of agrifood systems cannot be achieved without the full implementation of rights-based frameworks such as UNDROP, UNDRIP and CEDAW, strong public policies that guarantee fair incomes and regulate markets, and the recognition of women’s and youth leadership in building resilient, equitable and sustainable territories.
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Strategic Policies and Approaches towards More Efficient, Inclusive, Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture to Improve Cropping Systems’ Productivity, Natural Resource Efficiency and Sustainability (ECA/44/25/4)
Thank you, Chair. I speak on behalf of the Nyeleni Europe and Central Asia Food Sovereignty Network.
At the heart of our region’s agrifood systems are peasants, pastoralists, fisherpeople and Indigenous Peoples. They provide food, care for ecosystems, and sustain territories, yet their rights are constantly undermined by fragmented policies, market deregulation and corporate capture.
We insist on the full implementation of UNDROP and UNDRIP to guarantee these communities their rights to land, water, territories and seeds. Peasants’ seed systems must be defended as collective rights of peasants, free from patents, digital biopiracy and commodification. Pastoralists’ mobility, grazing lands and customary institutions must be respected, while fisherpeople need protection from industrial fleets and aquaculture expansion. Without these rights, there can be no food sovereignty, no biodiversity and no resilience.
What ensures fair incomes is not technology or markets left unregulated, but strong public policies. Policies must guarantee decent prices, regulate markets, and protect rural communities from unfair trade. These policies create the conditions for the transition towards agroecology, which is not simply a set of techniques but a societal transformation, addressing biodiversity loss, climate change, and long-term resilience of agricultural ecosystems, while driving an economic paradigm change to social and solidarity economy, health and social justice together.
Youth, generational renewal and gender equality and equity are key: women and youth must gain real access to land, resources and decision-making spaces.
At the same time, the latest SOFI report shows alarming levels of food insecurity even in high-income countries. We need Food Social Security, territorial and local markets, and solidarity procurement to connect small and medium scale food producers and consumers, ensuring healthy food for all while sustaining small-scale producers’ livelihoods.
We also want to respond to the background document’s emphasis on so-called “emerging technologies” such as precision agriculture, vertical farming and controlled-environment systems. Nyeleni ECA’s position is clear: digitalisation and other technofixes are not neutral tools. They concentrate power in the hands of corporations that control data platforms, patents and infrastructures, reinforcing inequalities and creating new forms of digital colonialism. Far from solving the climate crisis, these approaches financialise nature and undermine farmers’ autonomy, while diverting public resources away from real solutions. The real innovation is agroecology, rooted in peasants’, fishers’, pastoralists’ knowledge, collective seed systems and territorial markets, which provides systemic answers to biodiversity loss, climate change and rural poverty. If we want to face the climate crisis while still producing healthy food, States must invest politically, financially and technically in agroecology, not in false solutions.
In conclusion, we urge FAO and Member States: protect the rights of peasants, pastoralists, fisherpeople and Indigenous Peoples; implement UNDROP; regulate markets through strong public policies; and support agroecology as the real pathway for innovation and societal transformation.
Advancing Gender Equality in the Region: Update on the Progress Made (ECA/44/25/7)
Women – peasants, pastoralists, fisherwomen, Indigenous women and migrant women – are the backbone of our food systems. Through seed saving, biodiversity preservation, unpaid care work, food processing and preparation, they sustain territories and societies. They are also at the forefront of building resilience, advancing agroecology, and developing solidarity, commons and feminist economies.
Yet their rights remain systematically undermined. The background document recognises progress on gender equality, but the reality is that women continue to face exclusion from land, territories, decision-making and public support. In the EU, gender equality is not a binding objective in the CAP, and National Strategic Plans are not required to address it. Young women in particular face structural barriers to land, credit and markets, while migrant women workers remain concentrated in precarious and under-regulated sectors of agriculture and food.
Our movements are clear: advancing gender equality requires centring intersectional, popular feminism as a pillar of systemic transformation. This means dismantling patriarchy together with racism and all other oppressions, as laid out in the CPAA. Women’s assemblies and spaces of diversities must be strengthened, and men must also be trained in feminism and new masculinities to break harmful behaviours. Feminism is not a side issue but a foundation for building resilient and just agrifood systems.
International frameworks already oblige states to act. The CEDAW Convention asserts the right of rural women to access and use natural resources, including seeds, and to preserve and exchange them. UNDROP affirms women peasants’ rights to land, water, territories, and resources, and their right to participate equally in decision-making. These must be implemented in practice, not just cited.
At European level, future CAP reforms must establish gender equality as a specific, obligatory objective. Gender-disaggregated data, gender-responsive budgeting and audits, and targeted support for women must become standard. At national and local levels, public procurement and territorial markets must give priority to women producers with fair prices, and public programmes must expand agroecological training and support for women starting or sustaining small-scale farms.
In conclusion, we affirm that women are not only food producers but political actors. Their knowledge, leadership and collective feminist struggles are essential to rebuild our food systems and reclaim our rights. We urge FAO and Member States to make gender equality binding across all agricultural and food policies, and to support women as leaders of food sovereignty and systemic transformation.
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Through these interventions, Nyéléni ECA reaffirms that food sovereignty, agroecology, and feminism are inseparable pillars of the transformation needed in Europe and Central Asia. True resilience will not come from market deregulation or technofixes, but from rights-based public policies, collective control over natural resources, and the leadership of women, youth and Indigenous Peoples in shaping the future of our agrifood systems.