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 The
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) will hold its Annual General Meeting in Manila
on October 29-November 1, 2000. Created in 1971, the
CGIAR is an association of public and private members
supporting a system of 16 Future Harvest Centers that
work in more than 100 countries. The Philippine-based
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is one
of the research centers supported by the CGIAR.
The
experiences of Third World countries with IRRI and
other international research and training centers
of CGIAR prove that its research and related activities
did not contribute to sustainable improvements in
the productivity of agriculture, forestry and fisheries
but further worsens the monopoly of the imperialist
globalization on agriculture. Other countries have
experienced problems such as those in the labor practices
of these institutions, sovereignty issues, etc.
These
realities, widespread discontent, commonality of experience
and the true character of the adverse effects of the
CGIAR in agriculture and food security worldwide have
not been brought out in an international forum. It
is in this context that various people's movements
from South and Southeast Asia will also gather in
the Philippines to launch parallel activities with
the CGIAR-AGM like street conferences with exhibits
and displays, workshops and mass actions with the
theme "People's Street Conference: Uphold
People's Control on Agriculture! Assert Farmer-centered
Agricultural Research and Systems!"
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