"The Adivasi (Indigenous Peoples), Dalit, Pastoralist and Peasant
Communities meet each year to celebrate our movements for Food
Sovereignty and build solidarity with one another. This declaration was
passed at the 4th Year Annual Food Sovereignty Summit which culminated
in the formation of our Alliance for Food Sovereignty." - Sagari Ramdas, Adivasi Local Assessment Representative and IPCCA Gender Working Group Coordinator
The full text of the declaration is below.
The Pellipadugu*
Declaration on Food Sovereignty
We the adivasi, dalit, pastoralist, peasant, scientist and student
communities have gathered here from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, between 28th
and 30th December 2013, in D. Bhimavaram village of the adivasi
territories, with the collective concern to defend our sovereign right to food
and the rights of mother earth.
We deliberated on the fundamental questions that concern our food:
the plunder of our resources; the threats to seed sovereignty; the health of
our soils; the commodification of our biodiversity, knowledge and cultures; and
the destruction of our local markets by the Global Corporate industrial food
complex.
For us, food is the abundance of life that mother earth provides:
the diversity of grains, pulses, oil seeds, tubers, fruits, vegetables,
animals, insects, fish; and the associated food cultures celebrated in our
various communities. Ownership and control of land is central to our struggle
for food. Markets are networks of relationships to protect, sustain and nurture
our food through local reciprocal systems of exchange. They are not spaces to
extract profit.
Women are leaders in the Food Sovereignty Movement. It is women
who are at the frontlines of struggles for Food justice; and challenging
patriarchy is an integral part of restoring Food Sovereignty.
We reaffirm the power in our peasant food webs to feed ourselves
and to resist the corporate capture of our lives.
We declare that our lands, forests, water, air, diversity, seeds,
knowledge and cultures are not for sale. We will resist the monetization of our
lives and resources.
We assert that food security can only be met through Food
Sovereignty.
We call upon
the State with the following demands:
We
demand that the State implement without further delay, the recognition of
individual rights and community forest rights according to customary boundaries
of adivasi and other traditional forest dweller communities.
We
demand that the State uphold the supreme powers of the gram sabha under the
Panchayat Raj (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 and the Forest Rights
Act, 2006.
We demand that the State commit its resources to our autonomous
local systems of production, procurement and distribution to ensure food
security.
We condemn the State-Corporate nexus that has decimated our
farming systems: including seeds, agronomic practices, dairy, poultry and
fisheries.
We further condemn the State’s continued aggressive promotion of
national and multinational Corporates to take over the last bastions of
autonomous farming: adivasi food cultures and pastoralist livelihoods.
We condemn the decision of Government of India to ratify the “Peace Clause” at the
Bali round of the WTO negotiations, that trades away our sovereign right to
define our food systems.
We call for a moratorium on all ‘Free Trade Agreements’ that destroy our lives and
livelihoods.
We oppose the entry of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Food and
Retail.
We strongly condemn State efforts to promote genetically modified
crops and call for a moratorium on all field trials in accordance with the
recommendations of the Technical Expert Committee on GMOs, appointed by the Supreme Court of
India.
We oppose the global patent regime that privatises and commodifies
our knowledge and biodiversity.
We denounce the false market solutions to climate change, and
declare that Food Sovereignty is the only way to build resilience and in fact
combat the Global Food Industrial System as a primary driver of climate change.
We call for the roll back of destructive State programs such as
INSIMP, which in the name of promoting millets, threatens local biodiverse and
autonomous agro-ecosystems.
We demand a halt to all monoculture plantations in our fields and
forests.
We commit to
the following actions:
We shall continue to defend our rights over our lands, forests,
water and air.
We commit to deepening our relationships and traditions of
reciprocity and collectivism as a means of solidarity with one another. This
solidarity is the basis to resist the violence of the corporate food industry.
We shall build power through democratic local systems of
governance to further food sovereignty.
We will use the power of our vote to raise Food Sovereignty as a
political issue.
We shall shift from growing commodity monocultures to cultivating
diverse food crops, through ecological and organic farming practices.
We shall save and exchange our seeds and thereby resist the
corporate seed markets.
There is an interdependency between animals,
crops, forests, water and other resources of the commons that has been broken
by the industrialization of our food systems. We shall restore these broken
links by rebuilding our indigenous animal resources, which in turn nourish and
are nourished by these commons.
We shall reestablish local markets as a means to exchange our
produce with one another, and to feed and support local communities.
We celebrate the spirit and commitment of young people in the food
sovereignty movement.
We shall conscientiously nurture intergenerational spaces within
our movements for sharing knowledge and practices for the future.
We hereby come together as a Food Sovereignty alliance between our
movements, which shall advance this shared vision.
December 30th 2013 Pellipadugu
Kalwa, D. Bhimavaram village,
Addateegala Mandal, East Godavari , AP
V. Murugamma and V.Krishnamma, Dalit Mahila Sangham,
Chittoor
K. Pandu Dora, National Convenor, Adivasi Aikya Vedika
M. Shivaprasad, Convenor- Telangana, Adivasi Aikya
Vedika, Adilabad
K. Krishnarao, Convenor- Northern Andhra , Adivasi
Aikya Vedika , Vishakapatnam
M. Kamala, G. Satyam and P Dharmu , Adivasi Chaitanya
Sangham, Adilabad
Hussain Swamy, C.H Malikaarjun and Nandeswari, Chenchu
Rakshana Samiti, Mahabubnagar
M. Rambabu, E. Jyoti and M. Satyavati , Koitur Kutuva
Sangham, Khammam
K. Veeraswamy and C.H Durga, Adivasi Seva Sangham,
West Godavari
K. Venkatesh Dora, Venkatlaxmi and K. Satyavati, Girijana
Deepika, East Godavari
P. Somalingam and K. Pandamma, Jeevam, Vishakapatnam
V. Jogiraju, Derala Girijana Chaitanya Sangham,
Vishakapatnam
P. Thammaiah and , Manya Deepika, Vizianagaram
S. Jayprakash, Syuryakanti Yuvajana Sangham,
Vizianagaram
S. Vykuntarao and K. Prabhavathi, Savara Sangham,
Srikakulam
N. Adinarayana, Sri Gopi Rytu Sangham, Chittoor
S. Apparao and K. Narayanamma, Chinna Sanna Karu
Vyavasaidarula Sangham, Vishakapatnam
N. Satyamma and N. Pochamma, Ottavapantala Mahila
Vedika, Medak
G. Yadigiri and Kavita, Deccani Gorrela-Mekala
Pempakadarula Sangham, Medak
N. Deviah, Grama Sangham, Warangal
Prof K.R. Chowdry, Hyderabad
Dr Radha Gopalan, Chittoor
Dr Sagari R Ramdas, Hyderabad
Madhusudhan, Hyderabad
Charanya R., Hyderabad
Shruti Thrayil, Pune
M. Deepu, Hyderabad
Rahul Ramakrishna, Hyderabad
Srikrupa, Hyderabad
N. Bhavana, Hyderabad
E. Jayant, Bangalore
Aditi Pinto, Mumbai
Sandeep K Singh, Bangalore
Sharib Ali, Kolkata
Amol, Mumbai
Siddharth, Mumbai
Alia Farouqui, Mumbai
*The Pellipadagu stream is the
lifeline of 12 adivasi villages nestled along its banks. This historic venue of
the Food Sovereignty Summit is the site of struggle by adivasi peoples of D.
Bhimavaram, Nookarai, Mallavarammamidlu, Mammidipalam, Nimmalapalam, Veerampalam and Kovalapalam villages under the
leadership of Girijana Deepika and Adivasi Aikya Vedika, to prevent the granite
mining of rocks surrounding their sacred river. In 2010, the adivasi village
councils passed resolutions rejecting the granite mine.