On 9 January, the FAO devoted a seminar to good farming practices with the aim of promoting sustainable agriculture in developing countries and of improving social and environmental development, both nationally and internationally.
According to the FAO, in addition to the volatile prices of agricultural produce that are ruining farmers, developing countries are increasingly faced with the proliferation of standards and codes established by international institutions, such as "good farming practices". This, however, may also hinder their development, since it represents a handicap to gaining access to the markets of wealthy countries, as well as an opportunity, by encouraging them to improve their yields, their productivity and the safety of farm workers.
In order, however, for these standards and codes to give positive results, the international community must first of all set its sights on one fundamental objective: establishing a means of regulating international agricultural trade, without which DCs will be unable to benefit from the advantages brought about by the code of "good practices".
To achieve this aim, it is necessary:
> that a new body is given responsibility for establishing a system for regulating the international agricultural markets that also supplements action taken by the WTO and the FAO, in order to protect developing countries from all collateral costs (economic, environmental, social etc.), associated with hugely volatile prices;
> that strategies under consideration internationally to improve the situation of DCs are adapted according to the specific regional requirements of each country. It is therefore necessary to ensure that developing countries having adopted these good practices gain advantages that are greater than costs inherent to these standards;
> that all countries throughout the world respect such practices so that developing countries are not prejudiced.
Consequently, an international evaluating and grading agency is of vital importance and, with this in mind, WOAgri has set about creating the NAR Agency (New Agricultural Regulations) that will make it possible to:
> make authorities and the public aware about the excesses of international agricultural markets;
> ensure that standards are respected by all countries;
> regulate international prices when worldwide prices diverge too much and for too long from regional equilibrium prices defined upstream, by issuing warnings and suitable recommendations for achieving adequate equilibrium.
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