Georgia is one of the poorest countries in the former Soviet bloc. Over half of its 4.7 million people live below the poverty line, second only to Romania among central and eastern European countries. The purpose of this paper is to describe the grassroots reality of the country’s agricultural sector...

Norway, on Europe’s northern fringe, is characterised by small-scale farming. The choice of crops and their yields are limited by the Nordic climate. Farm policies promote decentralisation and a varied farm structure in order to secure rural settlement, food security, food safety, environmental quality and sustainability. Agriculture receives substantial public...

Subsistence agriculture is closely linked to a low level of economic development. We find it both in today's less developed countries and in the early stages of industrialised countries. Typically, subsistence agriculture is characterized by a low-external input level and low productivity (per land and/or per labour). In these situations...

From the point of view of promises made ten years ago, the transition of the food sector of many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) is considered weak and somehow disappointing (MACOURS and SWINNEN 2000). The development of the agricultural sector as the domestic raw material producer for food processing...

This project, designed to reduce rural poverty, focused particularly on small farmers, unemployed young people and rural women. It was in line with the government's strategic development aims in mountain areas with a high incidence of poverty.  The project served as a platform for continuing policy dialogue with the government on...

Mountains of the world cover about one-fifth of the land surface, are home to one-tenth of the world's population, and provide livelihood to some of the poorest communities in the world. Mountain lakes and streams are a source of freshwater for countless riparian human communities, support industries, provide water for...

This report presents the results of work in progress. It applies GIS techniques and newly available geo-referenced data to understand conditions underlying poverty and hunger in the world, with special reference to mountain environments and populations. Following the system developed by the United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring...

L’agriculture dans les Alpes peut assurer son avenir par la production et la commercialisation régionale de produits de qualité. La production de spécialités – viande, lait et légumes bio, etc. - permet d’exploiter des niches commerciales. Il convient pour ce faire de privilégier et de favoriser une exploitation des surfaces...

Risk and De-Collectivisation: Evidence from the Czech Republic Bezemer, D. J. (2002), Proceedings of 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain The paper analyses the behavior of family farms socialist-style farms in the presence of risk, given the typical post-socialist environment in the Czech Republic. http://purl.umn.edu/24888

Farm Transformation and Restructuring in Czech Agriculture – Ten Years After Doucha, T., Divila, E., Trávníček, Z., (2002) 13th International Farm Management Congress, July 7-12, 2002, Wageningen, The Netherlands. The development of the farms structure in the Czech Republic can be found for example in the article written by Doucha, Divila...

The Trans-Himalayan region encompasses a number of countries situated in the midland and highland areas of the Himalayas, Karakoram, and in a broad sense also in Hindu Kush and Pamir. The mountains are characterized by a very low level of human development, with full exploitation or overexploitation of the natural...

Present-day Central and Eastern European agriculture is characterized by a high incidence of small-scale farmers who are not producing for the market. This is partly the result of land reform procedures practiced in these countries. Post-communist land reforms predominantly restituted land to pre-communist owners, resulting in an extremely fragmented ownership...

The Government of Turkmenistan has chosen a unique approach to land reform and farm restructuring unlike the procedures and mechanisms adopted by other former Soviet republics. The collective land holdings are divided into plots that are leased to families while retaining the overall collective structure and state ownership of all...

Agriculture has always been an important sector of the Cypriot economy. Following the Turkish invasion of 1974 and the occupation of 38 percent of the country’s territory, including Cyprus' most valuable land and water resources, an accelerated declining trend set in, which is still continuing today. Also, due to the...

La caracterización adecuada de los sistemas agropecuarios contribuye en la elaboración de estrategias de desarrollo y métodos de extensión específicos según la estructura de los mismos. La presente investigación científica realiza una descripción integral de los sistemas de producción de la comunidad campesina de Huantán en la provincia de Yauyos...

The thirteen papers presented in this publication review fish stocks and fisheries of mountainous areas of Asia: Himalayas (Bhutan, Nepal, northern states of India within the Himalayas), Western Ghats (India), Karakoram-Hindu Kush (Pakistan, Afghanistan), Pamir (Tajikistan), Tien Shan (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), Altai (Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China), high altitude lakes of Mongolia and...

This issue of Unasylva contains, as promised in the previous edition, additional articles on sustainable mountain development. These articles help to complete the focus on the topic and should also help to promote interest in the recently declared International Year of the Mountain (2000) for which FAO has been designated lead agency...

Mountains and highlands have always played an important role in the history of humankind. They have been sources of valuable resources - freshwater arguably the most important, refuges, natural barriers, spiritual sanctuaries, and so on. Yet, for the most part, they have been viewed as peripheral to the rest of...

Major changes have been made in the ownership of agricultural land in Moldova since 1992. These changes became possible when members and workers in large-scale farm enterprises began to receive individual rights to a share of land and farm assets and were allowed free decision between keeping their share in...

El estudio fue realizado en la comunidad campesina de Qosqo Ayllu (Región Inka) durante la campaña agrícola 1991-1992, el cual intenta formalizar el conocimiento campesino, demostrar la racionalidad de su tecnología y analizar el alcance del enfoque de sistemas en la zona andina, a través de la determinación de las...