The SARD Initiative seeks to build the capacity of poor rural communities to become aware of and adopt good practices that facilitate the transition to SARD. In this regard, the project seeks to improve access to community experiences and existing knowledge, approaches and technologies through a web-based Resource Facility, including a good practice data base.

What does practice mean?

A practice can be an action, approach, innovation, solution, process, experience or a technology that has been viable over time or introduces change at local, national or international level.

What does good practice mean?

The term “good” refers to practices that produce measurable impacts toward the achievement of development outcomes while being environmentally sound, socially just, culturally sensitive, economically viable and technically practical. A good practice is sustainable, effective, efficient, replicable (easily adopted by a wide range of communities facing similar constraints), responds to real local needs and is adapted to the specific local conditions.

What does SARD good practice mean?

In the context of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, good practices deal with production, processing, protection, marketing and trading, governance, empowerment and cover a wide range of sectors (e.g. integrated pest control, plant species diversity conservation, water harvesting, aquaculture, animal production, fish cage farming, secure of indigenous communities’ intellectual property rights, community reforestation). A SARD good practice can have a short term impact (e.g. by improve soil fertility or access to micro-credit scheme) or a long term impact (e.g. by assuring food security, reducing vulnerability to environmental stress or increasing per capita income on a lasting basis) and can be performed by a wide range of actors (e.g. farmers, pastoralists, forest dwellers, fisher folks, extension agents, researchers, service providers, etc.).