Enhancing the Public Policy Process for Family Farming through Grassroots Participation

To strengthen family farming in the Southeast Asian region effectively, it is necessary to understand where the initiatives are in terms of policy support and how family farmers participate in the integrated phases of the policy cycle (Howell et al. 2009). Therefore, this paper aims to provide insights on the importance of grassroots participation in public policymaking and assess various mechanisms and pathways towards an enabling environment that supports the development of family farming in SEA. This was done through analysis of information gathered from stakeholders who attended the Regional Policy Forum on Developing Public Policies for Family Farming: Reaching Out to the Grassroots through Participatory Policy Making. This regional forum was organized by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in partnership with the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and was held on 27 April 2021 via Zoom.