CHAPTER : 3 -
Grain de Sel N°28: Support to peasant organizations under review

Ten years of support to peasant organizations … enough to step back and learn the lessons, “capitalize” from these support programs.  A lot of work has been put into this by the French ministry of foreign affairs resulting in the organization of a workshop on “the strategies and institutional support devices for peasant organizations” in association with the Technical Center of Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) from 8-11 June 2004 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).   Although all the development partners agree on the place occupied by producers and their organizations, many of them still don’t know how to support the peasant organizations in their diversity and multiple functions.  The representatives of these peasant organizations, the support structures, the ministries as well as the sponsors have thought through, exchanged and debated the question over four days.  The existing and numerous thoughts were often generated by the support groups.  To counter this principle, the workshop organizers chose to give the floor to the peasant organizations who are the first concerned.  This special issue of Grain de Sel not only presents the summary of these exchanges rich with information but also large excerpts of the peasant organization thought processes.