CEDAW/C/GC/34 other resources that they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired, including by protecting them against discrimination and dispossession. In addition, States parties should: (a) Promote rural women’s access to and meaningful participation in agricultural cooperatives, in which women may be members or the sole members; (b) Enhance rural women’s role in fisheries and aquaculture, as well as their knowledge of the sustainable use of fishery resources, and promote their access to forests and sustainable forest resources, including safe access to fuelwood and non-wood forest resources; (c) Strengthen customary and statutory institutions and mechanisms for defending or protecting women’s rights to land, water and other natural resources, including community paralegal services. 2. Agricultural and land policies and organic farming 60. The consequences of industrial agriculture have often been detrimental to rural women farmers and have included soil degradation and erosion, water depletion and the use of cash crops to the detriment of local food crops. The controversial use of genetically modified organisms and the patenting of genetically altered crops are also linked to increased agricultural industrialization. Rural women, however, are more often engaged in organic and sustainable farming practices. 61. Global food, energy, financial and environmental crises have led to the increased sale and leasing of land owned by the State or other actors to local, national and foreign investors. Such agreements, often accompanie d by expropriations, have put rural women at risk of forced eviction and increased poverty and have further diminished their access to and control over land, territories and natural resources, such as water, fuelwood and medicinal plants. Displacement negatively affects rural women in multiple ways, and they often suffer gender -based violence in that context. 62. States parties should implement agricultural policies that support rural women farmers, recognize and protect the natural commons, promote organi c farming and protect rural women from harmful pesticides and fertilizers. They should ensure that rural women have effective access to agricultural resources, including high-quality seeds, tools, knowledge and information, as well as equipment and resources for organic farming. In addition, States parties should: (a) Respect and protect rural women’s traditional and eco-friendly agricultural knowledge, in particular the right of women to preserve, use and exchange traditional and native seeds; (b) Protect and conserve native and endemic plant species and varieties that are a source of food and medicine, and prevent patenting by national and transnational companies to the extent that it threatens the rights of rural women. States parties should prohibit contractual requirements on the mandatory purchase of seeds producing plants whose seeds are sterile (“terminator seeds”), which prevent rural women from saving fertile seeds; 18/25 16-03601