"incidence on Agriculture Policies and Strenghten of the Coordinador Council of Farmers organizations - COCOCH"

Local Organization: Coordinador Council of Farmers Organizations - COCOCH

Region: Honduras - Central America

Content: T he project allowed COCOCH to build a front, together with other national organizations, to influence both positively and constructively policies concerning land and agriculture. COCOCH defined proposals to support the food crops production and small-farmer agriculture. The project strengthened the internal structure of COCOCH in terms of their organizational, operational and administrative effectiveness.

Results: The activity of influencing policies was focused on relevant laws related to small farmers. Specifically the laws considered were:

• The new law on agrarian reform submitted to the National Congress on April 2002, and followed by the composition of a multi-sectorial Commission. The approval process of the law has been delayed by Congress. In view of the sensitivity of this law, an appropriate strategy for political incidence has been developed.

• The Property Law was approved in May 2004: Important recommendations provided by COCOCH have been incorporated into law. Among them an important factor is the establishment of a maximum ceiling at 25 hectarias. The 'over ceiling' will be recuperated by the National Institute of Agrarian Reform INA. The inclusion of the item related to the regularization of land owned by farmers for more than three years is an important achievement. COCOCH has been involved in the National Commission of property policies - CONAPON. With these specific points around 500 groups (7500 families) have benefited from the law. COCOCH is now monitoring the implementation of the legislation.

• Other laws have been considered in the political work of COCOCH. In addition, the organization dedicated enormous efforts in providing evidence of the damages provoked by the Free Trade Agreement, as well as its impact on small-scale agriculture and food security.

Lessons learned: The relevance of the COCOCH experience is that of political impact. The representation of COCOCH (9 national farmers organizations, 3000 community-based groups, 200 000 families) permitted the achievement of important results and also resulted in mobilizing people into manifesting for recognition of their rights.

The links with media have been germane to the results achieved.

The coordination with other organizations and the establishment of broader alliances has been crucial. The COCOCH experience and the measured results, now needs to be formulated into political processes.

COCOCH is promoting the small farmers' prospective in opposition to government which does not recognize the social and economic value of this sector in terms of policies and resource allocation. Monitoring the implementation of the law is crucial.