Mpofu spoke about the impact capitalism is having on peasants and women. She mentioned that capitalism is still grabbing land from people and that violence against women is increasing.

However, she said some of the progress made by LVC in the recent year is its growing number of peasants at the international level and the mobilization of more women to attend international meetings and conferences.

Some of the movement’s biggest achievements, in Mpofu’s opinion, has been the promotion of food sovereignty and the introduction of agroecology training schools.
She recognized there are still some challenges ahead, such as the mobilizing of young people to become more active in the movement. She said young people are resistant because they think farming is a very difficult activity so LVC is trying to get them involved in farming.

One of the main problems in Zimbabwe is that young people do not have enough land, so they depend on their parents’ land.

She also mentioned climate change as one of the big challenges faced by all farmers, while she highlighted the importance of indigenous seeds.

About the next steps to be taken by La Via Campesina, she said that they need to market their agroecological production. They have to process, package and sell their products to the markets, and for that they need to campaign, to lobby governments.

Photo: viacampesina.org