Bolivia: Law No. 338 on Peasant and Indigenous Economic Organizations (OECAS) and Community Economic Organizations (OECOM) for the Integration of Sustainable Family Farming and Food Sovereignty

National law establishing the framework for recognizing, strengthening and integrating sustainable family farming in Bolivia and regulating activities carried out by Peasant and Indigenous Economic Organizations (OECAS), Community Economic Organizations (OECOM), and Indigenous, peasant, intercultural and Afro-Bolivian producer families. The law seeks to contribute to food sovereignty and food security and to comprehensive development for Living Well by strengthening the productive, processing, marketing and financing capacities of family farming. Its instruments include technical assistance and training, research and innovation, access to development credit, producer organization, promotion of markets and fairs, inclusion of family farmers as suppliers to public food programs, the Bolivian Social Seal, the Unified Sustainable Family Farming Registry, and mechanisms for participation and social oversight. The law also incorporates gender and rural-youth approaches, agrobiodiversity conservation, ecological production, climate-change adaptation and mitigation, value addition, and improved access to information and markets. Sustainable family farming is declared a matter of public and national interest because of its contribution to food sovereignty and improved living conditions for rural producer families.