Helsinki hosts world summit of farmers in June 12-15

The World Farmers’ Organisation (WFO), the umbrella organisation of the national farmers’ organisations all over world, plans to hold its annual general assembly in Helsinki on June 12 to June 15.

The four-day event will be held at the Finlandia Hall in collaboration with the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) representing farmers, forest owners, and rural entrepreneurs in Finland.

WFO’s mission is to bring instances of agricultural workers to the main international fora to contribute towards the empowerment of farmers pursuing the sustainable development the goals.

The event is mainly structured on four working groups that WFO has formed on the most important challenges that agriculture and humanity are facing. More specifically, the four groups are dealing with climate change, food security, livestock, and value chain.

In addition to these groups, there are two committees – one focused on women in agriculture and the other is related to young farmers.

The general assembly is the main event of the WFO, which this year is expected to be attended by more than 500 representatives from across the globe to discuss the key issues for the business sector.

The theme for this year’s general assembly is “The Future We Want To Harvest.” Outstanding international personalities from politics and agriculture will also be present in the event.

On the opening day, five thematic workshops will be held focused on connecting farmers to markets, the role of forestry for farmers and their organisations in a changing climate, cooperatives: success factors and challenges, sustainable livestock production as key to human development, and risk management: a success strategy for the future of agriculture.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, WFO President William Rolleston, World Meteorological Organisation Secretary General Petteri Taalas, and OIE Deputy Director General Jean-Philippe Dop, among others, will take part in the inaugural ceremony.

On June 13th and 14th high-level panel discussion sessions will take place on allying the farmers’ agenda to the global political dialogue on climate change, strengthening farmers’ position in trade and value chain, advocating for farmers’ role in the food security agenda, mainstreaming farmers’ agenda in multilateral processes.

In the afternoon of June 14th a high-level political forum session will be held with the participation of Rudolf Moegele, deputy director general at DG Agri of European Commission.