Farmers' solidarity.

Farmers from rich, developing and former Communist countries met at the Agricultural Advisory Centre in Plonsk, Poland, late last year for the latest in a series of Farmers' Dialogues. These started when French and Swedish farmers met to talk about what joining the European Union would mean for Sweden.

At this latest dialogue, the implications of Poland joining were on many delegates' minds.

Polish farming is generally presented as being frozen in the 40-year time warp of the Communist system. Yet many changes are under way. Twenty-five per cent of the population may still be officially employed in agriculture, but as few as a third of these get their living from farming alone. And the small farms which survived on 80 per cent of the land, thanks to Resistance and Rural Solidarity, are rich in human experience.

Bogdan Brodowski spoke as a young farmer who had inherited a 20 hectare farm from his parents, and looked for new opportunities. He said that more information and training were needed for the creation of farmers' unions and marketing organizations. He spoke of his admiration for a cousin who had taken on the state farm where he worked when it went bankrupt. He had needed a strong nerve to see it through its initial troubles but he was still surviving after some years.

Now was the moment to shape a coherent plan for further development, Brodowski went on. `Half the farmers will go, but agriculture is only part of the rural scene. I want to see more optimism. I am not afraid. I believe being a member of the EU will help Polish farmers.'

Ivar Virgin, a Swedish Member of the European Parliament and a farmer, felt that Agenda 2000 (the present EU programme for agricultural reform) would fulfil the goal of ending over-production and approaching closer to world price levels. He believed that enlarging the EU would provide a more balanced Europe.

Dr M Brzoska, chief negotiator with the EU for the Polish Ministry of Agriculture, said that forecasts suggested that food prices in the shops would rise by at least 15 per cent when Poland joined the EU. If Poland was a member today it would cost the agricultural budget six billion euros. Already the pursuit of standardization of regulations had resulted in the translation of 40,000 documents into Polish.

Gregorz Slonczewski, a young Polish farmer, commented that the exchange of experiences and the spirit of participation at the Dialogue had broken down barriers between people which had come to be taken for granted.

Leonard Rakotondrazaka from Madagascar called on rich countries to open their markets and facilitate trade. African farmers were not prepared for the competition brought by globalization, but they had exports to offer if producers could be helped to improve quality and marketing methods. He spoke of the benefits of the Dialogue which was `friendly and frank despite differences of religion, nationality and standards of living'.