The EU and FAO support rural communities in Southern Africa to lessen the impact of drought, floods and cyclones and to increase their resilience by introducing adapted crops and seeds and promoting good agricultural practices.Mitigating the impact of climate change.

This paper investigates the ‘megatrends’ shaping African economic, political and social landscapes and asks which ones depend endogenously on processes that are within the realm of policy influence and which ones are indeed exogenous. Based on this analysis, it sketches four plausible scenarios for African food systems and discusses how...

Smallholder agriculture has long served as the dominant economic activity for people in sub-Saharan Africa, and it will remain enormously important for the foreseeable future. But the size of the sector does not necessarily imply that investments in the smallholder sector will yield high social benefits in comparison to other...

This report, and the events recorded in it, focus upon seven countries which are at various stages of active or potential candidature to join the European Union. Six of the countries are in the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and...

David Booth investigates the scope for reforming African agricultural policy choices. While recognising the difficulties that many countries face in developing the agricultural policies they need to transform their economies, he encourages policymakers to abandon 'pessimistic' political-economy diagnostics. Instead he provides evidence that social and economic reforms can be achieved...

African countries face serious difficulties in getting the agricultural policies they need to help turn economic growth into economic transformation. Nonetheless, radical pessimism may not be justified for two reasons. By comparing Southeast Asian and African experience in other policy fields, this paper suggests that changing policy ideas may play...

The paper distinguishes different approaches to markets in, and affecting, rural sub-Saharan Africa, and present some associated policies, notably ‘market-friendly’ and ‘market-challenging’. We then propose a political economy approach as a more satisfactory way of grasping the complex social dynamics of ‘real markets’ and their forms of unequal power. This...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is in Tanzania, where climate change is taking a toll on local populations. FAO-backed initiatives are making it easier for farmers and families to produce crop varieties that grow in dry conditions. Plus, new soil methods are increasing production and energy-saving stoves...

En este capítulo se realiza una introducción general del estado actual de las discusiones sobre la agricultura familiar en Brasil, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Guatemala y México, como parte de un proyecto más amplio titulado “Análisis de pobreza y desigualdad rural en América Latina” que realizó RIMISP para el FIDA en...

In recent years large-scale agricultural input subsidies have had a contested ‘rehabilitation’ in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reviews the changing paradigms, politics and theories associated with input subsidies’ decline and rise, and the implementation and impacts of recent large-scale programmes. Empirical evidence is patchy, and their impacts contested and dependent...

The Lexicon of Sustainability's Know Your Food is a short film series that introduces consumers to key terms and principles that can help them make more informed decisions about the food they eat. 

Progress in raising awareness and advocacy in favour of family farming during 2014, by IYFF-2014 National Committees. International Year of Family Farming IYFF-2014.

The Eastern African region (which includes Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) is highly vulnerable to climate change and several of its major sectors (notably agriculture) that significantly contribute to the sub-region’s economies are at risk. About 80% of the population in East Africa depend on agriculture, which contributes to 40% of...

This paper investigates the role of knowledge management in African agricultural and rural development policies, and how information and communications technologies (ICTs) can contribute to enhance it. African Policymakers are aware of the importance of knowledge management; however, its actual use is constrained by inter-related factors encompassing the national context...

SPSP et Biodiversité Échanges et Diffusion d’Expériences (BEDE) présentent un film d'Anne BERSON: "En route vers l'autonomie en semences en Afrique de l'Ouest, La foire sous-régionale des semences paysannes à Djimini, Sénégal". Une délégation de paysans de la sous-région et de France a sillonné une partie du Sénégal de Thiès à...

The EBRD and FAO are working together to introduce geographical indication status for a range of food products in Serbia, beginning with the local sour cherry. This project is also supported by Luxembourg.

Las políticas públicas y las acciones institucionales deben tomar en cuenta y potenciar el sinergismo entre agricultura familiar y desarrollo territorial, de manera que aquélla sea motor de desarrollo del territorio, y que el mejoramiento integral de las condiciones para el desarrollo de éste contribuya también a fortalecer a la...

Características de los sistemas productivos del Oeste de la provincia de Santiago del Estero, en Argentina. El libro describe las familias que los componen, su relación con los recursos naturales y las distintas estrategias organizacionales, y de producción ganadera y agrícola que emprenden para su sostenibilidad. El adecuado conocimiento de la...

ICT4Ag is a bimonthly printed and on-line magazine (http://ictupdate.cta.int) and an accompanying e-mail newsletter published by CTA. This issue focuses on building resilience for family farming.

L'agriculture familiale est aujourd'hui sous le feu des projecteurs. Tandis que les Nations unies ont proclamé 2014 « Année internationale de l'agriculture familiale », les plaidoyers visant à démontrer l'importance, en termes de développement, de cette forme d'exercice de l'activité agricole à travers le monde, trouvent à se faire entendre....