Small towns are an essential but often-neglected element of rural landscapes and food systems. They perform a number of essential functions, from market nodes to providers of services and goods and non-farm employment to their own population as well as that of the wider surrounding region.  In demographic terms, they...

What is the optimal size and composition of rural financial cooperatives (RFCs)? With this broad question in mind, we characterize alternative formations of RFCs and the implications of each in improving the access of rural households to financial services, including savings, credit, and insurance services. We find that some features...

Soils are a non-renewable resource on which 95% of our food supply depends. Short-sighted chemical fertilizer applications in conventional farming are depleting soils at an alarming rate. Instead of using potent chemicals that degrade soil, organic farmers continuously give back to the soil, maintaining soil health and fertility for future...

Farmers in Kazakhstan have been increasing the land area devoted to growing oilseed and pulse crops – and it makes good sense from several viewpoints. An FAO-organized seminar on “Pulses and oilseeds: prospects for development” was held here today, one of many forward-looking events on offer this year at Astana...

Rural businesses can develop in very diverse sectors of activity. The local opportunities will usually depend on the specific characteristics of the territory. Targeted investments in areas of local opportunity can create jobs, increase spending power and create sustainable economic growth in rural areas. One growth area in recent years...

These proceedings report the result of a sub-regional consultation on the existence and effectiveness of environmental monitoring systems for fisheries and aquaculture in the Lower Mekong basin. The document also includes a baseline assessment of environmental monitoring systems in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, and the report of a regional workshop...

A global drive to reduce food losses and waste all along the value chain has arrived in Ukraine, where this week the fisheries and aquaculture sector tackles the issue. Experts from FAO’s Fisheries Division in Rome, Italy are conducting a training course in Kyiv for representatives of Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology...

The League of Arab States, Arab Organization for Agricultural Development, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly organized a side event titled “Developing a Strategic Framework on Fisheries: Towards Sustainable Fisheries in the Arab Region” to present their ongoing collaboration on the implementation of SDG 14 with the aim of...

La alimentación consciente ha dejado de ser un tema tabú y se va instalando en las mesas de los chilenos. Por lo mismo las preguntas de dónde viene y como fue cultivada nuestra comida, son relevantes. Así nace en manos de Javier Carriel, Greenequitable, una comunidad de restaurantes saludables para...

O evento acontecerá em Nuremberg, na Alemanha, dos dias 14 a 17 de fevereiro do próximo ano, e é considerado a maior no setor de feira de orgânicos do mundo. Para participar, os agricultores devem acessar o link e preencher o formulário até o dia 17 de setembro de 2017. Em...

Cette note s’emploie à évaluer la cohérence des politiques agricoles et alimentaires mises en œuvre au Sénégal entre 2010 et 2015. L’analyse révèle notamment une hausse et un rééquilibrage des dépenses publiques en soutien à la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition. Toutefois, les politiques agricoles et alimentaires du Sénégal continuent...

The exodus of young people is one of the main problems of rural communities in Mediterranean Europe. The declining rural population is counterbalanced by migrants that have come to live and work in the countryside. Paradoxically, it is thanks to migrant shepherds that ancient pastoral traditions are kept alive and...

The theme of the development of organic farming in the EU and in Poland was taken up in the study, pointing out that organic production is an element of the EU agricultural product quality schemes. In this sense, organic production pursues the same objectives under the Common Agricultural Policy which...

O Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (Pronaf), principal política pública brasileira de crédito para as unidades familiares de produção, completa 22 anos nesta quinta-feira (24). Durante pouco mais de duas décadas, o valor total das operações do Programa atingiu R$200 bilhões. Os recursos foram aplicados na efetivação de...

A partir de la decisión institucional de avanzar en el fomento de la agroecología, INDAP organiza el Primer Simposio Nacional de Agroecología para la Agricultura Familiar. Su principal propósito es promover la práctica agroecológica como un modelo de producción sustentable para la Agricultura Familiar Campesina (AFC) de Chile, generando una...

Smart villages are the new concept of villages around Europe where the traditional services are improved by using new technologies. Mr Mario Milouchev, Director of DG AGRI for Rural Development Programmes1 and Pre-accession assistance, explains how digital solutions help those villages improve the economic performance of their areas but also...

Four decades of communism and an overnight transition from socialism to the free market caused dramatic shifts in food consumer – producer relationships across Eastern Europe. In the Czech Republic, a history of cooperatives and local food production contrasts with today’s situation, in which the country is almost entirely dependent...

While that number may seem small compared to the business generated by trade in the automotive or energy industries, the agri-food sector is of particular importance to the EU economy and, more importantly, the economy of millions of families. EU exports of agricultural and food products to third countries – not...

Para disputar todo o volume de biodiesel comercializado nos leilões bimestrais da Agência Nacional do Petróleo, Gás Natural e Biocombustíveis (ANP), as indústrias do país precisam do Selo Combustível Social, conferido pela Secretaria Especial da Agricultura Familiar e do Desenvolvimento Agrário (SEAD). Até 2014, o selo só era dado às indústrias...

Las mujeres constituyen hoy un nuevo proletariado internacional. Y esta es solo una de las constataciones «de género» del proceso de globalización, que incluye la feminización de las migraciones, la pérdida de tierras y las tradicionales asimetrías entre centro y periferia. Si bien el proceso de globalización ha dado lugar...