A group of South Korean farmers want the World Trade Organisation’s talks currently going on in Nairobi halted saying the agenda only favours farmers in developed countries to the detriment of peasant farmers.
The Korean Peasants League, led by group spokeswoman Hae-Yeon Chung on Wednesday held peaceful demonstrations outside the Kenya National Archives in Nairobi.
Waving placards, they sang songs in the Korean language condemning the WTO talks, saying poor farmers would continue suffering if the talks funded by rich nations receive the nod from world governments to open up markets for cheap goods from the developed nations.
Ms Chung said they were representing over 100,000 Korean peasant farmers seeking an end to the talks that had opened up local markets for imports, harming the lives of peasant farmers worldwide.
“Poor farmers have nowhere to sell their farm produce while their industries continue closing doors and sending workers home since processed foodstuffs are flooding supermarket shelves across the world,” she said.
She lamented that the lives of peasant farmers continued to be destroyed while developed countries forced poor nations to open up their markets in exchange for aid money that attracted high interest rates.
“It is evil that the European and American governments heavily subsidise farm inputs for their farmers and promote their exports by looking for markets for their cheaply produced goods in poor nations.
“Our products cannot compete with the processed foodstuffs from Europe and America since they have been lowly priced,” she said.
She said many factories had been closed down with many people going home to languish in poverty as the only activity they could engage in had been ruined by the European subsidies.
The group braved morning rains to walk along Nairobi streets, waving banners and placards bearing messages that blamed the ongoing talks for “causing hunger in the world”.
“Why do we let our people rely on relief food from the West when they can grow their own food?
“We need to ensure no agreement is reached at KICC since opening up the markets will deal the last nail to the farmers’ coffin,” Ms Chung said.
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