Agronomes & Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (AVSF) is currently accepting applications for the Benoît Maria Prize for peasant agroecology.

In 2022, Agronomes & Veterinarians Sans Frontières has created the Benoît Maria Prize for peasant agroecology in tribute to its colleague and fervent defender of the rights of indigenous peoples, who was murdered in Guatemala in August 2020.

This international prize aims to highlight and promote reward every two years, innovative agro-ecological projects run by farmers' organisations in Africa and Latin America.

Objectives

• Pay tribute to Benoît Maria, who has been working in Guatemala for over twenty years to defend the rights of indigenous farming communities and promote agriculture that enables them to live in dignity and respects the land that is theirs.
• Promoting agro-ecology for small-scale farming, the only way to ensure the development of agricultural production and a sustainable economy. breeding sustainable, respectful of biodiversity, the climate, human and animal health and, last but not least, of the men and women who practise it.
• To reward and publicise the initiatives taken by farmers' organisations in favour of agro-eco-logy and the recognition and defence of their rights.

Themes

• In line with Benoît Maria's commitments and achievements in Guatemala and consistent with AVSF's values and objectives, the themes are as follows:
  • Agro-ecological techniques and practices
  • Organisational systems and services upstream and downstream of production, promoting agro-ecology
  • Actions to defend the economic, social and cultural rights of farming families, in the service of agro-ecological production, and ultimately, to improve their incomes and their inclusion in their territories.
• A candidate farmers' organisation may submit an initiative on one or more of the above themes.

Price information

• A panel of judges will select a first prize of €6,000 and two other winners, each with a prize of €3,000.
• A list of 10 nominated farmers' organisations will also be drawn up.
• In addition to these financial grants, ad-hoc communication will be provided in the country of origin of the winning farmers' organisations and in France, to give visibility to these organisations and their initiatives (dedicated page on the AVSF and partner websites, publications on social networks, press communication, prize-giving ceremonies, etc.). In addition, a document listing all the entries will be produced in digital form.

Types of eligible actions

• Implementing and disseminating technical innovations and practices agroecological ;
• Systems for training, experimentation and action research ;
• Creation facilities and books in support of agroecology;
• Setting up services (supply of seeds, inputs and specific equipment for agro-ecological systems, training and advice, financial services, etc.) and/or production and/or processing support units;

• • • • Setting up innovative marketing channels;
      • Actions to promote gender equality and the inclusion of young people, in connection with agro-ecology.

      Eligible countries

      • For the first two sessions, the eligible countries selected are as follows: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Madagascar, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti and Bolivia.
      • The list of selected countries will be announced at each session.

      Eligibility criteria

      • The organisations eligible for the Benoît Maria Prize are :
        • Cooperative farmers' organisations, producers' associations or producer groups
        • Umbrella organisations or cooperatives (second level) must have a close link with grassroots organisations
        • To be eligible for the Prix Benoît Maria, organizations must :
          • Be located and legally recognised in one of the above regions or countries
          • Have been in legal existence for at least two years and be able to provide proof of their legal status.

Criteria

• The evaluation criteria for the PO-led initiative are as follows:
  • Overall relevance of the proposed initiative to promote agro-ecology with regard to (a) the local situation and (b) the three proposed themes
  • Quality of actions undertaken (expected relevance)
  • Results and impact: benefits derived by members of the farmers' organisation from the proposed actions
  • Results and impact: benefits derived by other players or stakeholders in the area from the proposed actions.
  • Results and impact: benefits of actions undertaken by young people and women
  • Sustainability of the actions implemented
  • Possibility of scaling up or replicating the initiative put in place

For more information, visit AVSF