Publications

The materials covered in this collection have been prepared for use by all service providers concerned with promoting farming as a business – whether they work for the private, NGO, or public sector. This could include the public sector extension workers who are involved in farm business management and marketing, private sector business service providers, NGOs and policy-makers. Further, it is hoped that the material will encourage decision-makers in countries where farm management extension positions have not been established to set up such positions.

The core idea of the Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) was to make more information available, specifically about markets, to smallholder farmers. This was done by building a network of entrepreneurs who collected price information regularly and sent it to a central collecting Internet platform facility. Due to the demonstrated benefits the RKN project has shown, the report concluded that rural market access to business networks should be expanded to reach commercially viable scales through the ongoing IFAD, FAO and other development programmes in the region.

This brochure aims to share with institutions, organizations and possible donors the activities that FAO’s Research and Extension Branch (OEKR) is developing in the field of agricultural innovation systems in family farming. It is designed as a folder with a general description of OEKR work and definitions of agricultural innovation systems and family farming.

In Colombia, the Foundation for the Sustainable and Participatory Development of Small Rural Producers (Corporación PBA) has developed a strategy for Participatory Rural Innovation (IRP), which prioritizes the development and promotion of farmers’ abilities and skills by using their own knowledge as the basis for this activity. It has also sought to encourage research institutions, state authorities, governmental and non-governmental organizations to work closely in the context of social processes at the local level, to promote innovation developed by the people themselves.

For the Rio+20 meetings GFRAS together with FAO, Farming First, IFPRI and WFO published a position paper entitled "Building Knowledge Systems in Agriculture". Knowledge sharing is critical to supporting the three dimensions of sustainable development (social, economic, and environmental). Extension and advisory services are crucial knowledge-sharing institutions and key for linking scientific research, field-level innovations and innovators, markets, education, and other service providers.

Ce document offre une vue d’ensemble sur les possibilités et les défis habituels auxquels sont confrontées les initiatives visant à augmenter l’impact des services de conseil et de vulgarisation rurale et agricole. L’analyse part du constat selon lequel les jours où la vulgarisation agricole était synonyme de travail avec les seuls organismes du secteur public sont terminés. Les « services de vulgarisation » décrits dans ce document pourraient par exemple être assurés par un fournisseur d’intrants donnant des conseils à un agriculteur sur les semences à planter, par une chaîne de télévision diffusant des prévisions météorologiques, par un supermarché donnant ...read more

The case study report contains a number of recommendations for the AJK Government to strengthen the demand-driven approach for demanding agricultural extension and other services through the multi-disciplinary Village Development Plans prepared by rural Community Organizations. As the recommendations are aimed at improving a specifi c situation, they are not generic and therefore not being included in the Executive Summary. The conclusions and lessons learned from the case study, however, are being presented here for other developing countries in case they want to adopt the demand-driven extension modality.

This study reviews and analyzes different successful experiences in Central America where extension experts have had a key role in achieving results within the framework of an agricultural innovation system. Our goal is to generate inputs and raise questions about the new role that should be taken by technical advisory systems and how they should be supported and strengthened within national extension systems.

This book represents the proceedings of the FAO international technical conference dedicated to Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC-10) that took place in Guadalajara, Mexico on 1-4 March 2010. A major objective of the conference was to take stock of the application of biotechnologies across the different food and agricultural sectors in developing countries, in order to learn from the past and to identify options for the future to face the challenges of food insecurity, climate change and natural resource degradation.

During the period 2002-10, FAO undertook an intense activity of biosafety capacity development, largely centred on enhancing the capacities of regulators and other technical staff involved in the implementation of biosafety frameworks, along with other components. The training programme was tailored to meet the needs of a very specific audience: biosafety regulators, policy-makers and members of national biosafety committees, with diverse educational backgrounds, not necessarily well versed in all the biosafety-related fields.