271

Cooperation and Development hopes for the peasants of Egypt

The LCHR has held a meeting in Al Mogazia village on 07/04/2010 attended by forty peasants from the village along with some local leaders of NGOs and members of a local council to discuss the problems of farmers in Egypt. The meeting focused on the rights of peasants in the establishment of union and cooperatives. The seminar showed the importance of cooperation in the life of peasants and agriculture to promote their lives in this sector. At the end of the meeting, participants agreed to organize a campaign managed by the Center, the program of the campaign is to support the rights of peasants in cooperation, which include the following:
• To support the means of resistance of peasants and stop the waste of land and agricultural resources to ensure the participation of farmers in wealth, power, human rights, equality, security and freedom and the return of funds seized by the Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit.
• The establishing of a new generation of cooperative.
• The establishment of an independent General Federation of Peasants based on democratic foundations and deals with the concerns of farmers.
• The education and training of farmers and their leaderships in civil and agricultural associations about the concepts and laws that organize cooperatives.
• Drop the debts of farmers especially the poor, like the initiative done with businessmen.
• Call to benefit from the experiences of other countries like Germany and India and other successful experiences, and transfer them to the Egyptian cooperative movement.
• Attempt to stop the conversion of Egyptian cooperatives to commercial companies.
• Put forward the amendments to the law of agricultural cooperation before the public opinion.
• The establishment of consortia productivity of farmers to market their production, and the creation of a fund for disaster cases to support them.
The participants asked the Center to work on implementing these recommendations and to sensitize farmers about their rights and to contribute in building the agonist advanced farmers healthy, educated working in the agricultural lands safely re-re-production of healthy food for all citizens for a secure future for all to ensure all classes of the future a more just and humane life.