SARD Initiative adn Policy Brief series

The first six in the SARD and ...Policy Brief series are now available online. Prepared in collaboration with other international organizations, these briefs encourage and assist policy-makers in developing and implementing policies to achieve SARD. (Titles as magic-text) Here you can access: SARD and Agricultural Workers, outlining policy options to promote fair conditions of employment in the agricultural sector; SARD and Child Labour outlining policy options to prevent and eliminate forms of child labour that harm, abuse or deprive children of an education; SARD and Organic Agriculture outlining policy options for making organic agriculture broadly accessible so its full benefits can be realized; SARD and the Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction outlining policy options for utilizing sustainable agriculture as an effective poverty reduction strategy; SARD and Agricultural Trade outlining policy options for using trade to address poverty and hunger as well as provide livelihood and food security; and SARD and Rural Enterprise outlining policy options for rural enterprise as a means to improve equity through local economic growth.

Sustainet publication "Sustainable Agriculture: A pathway out of poverty for India's rural poor", released in December 2006.

This remarkable publication was released by Sustainet, with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SARD Initiative. The publication includes 14 examples of successful sustainable agriculture approaches that were documented from Sustainet’s Indian project partners through a writeshop. Each case documented how to achieve sustainable agriculture in the areas of organic farming, land and water management, and how to tap new products and markets in India. Highlights include a definition of opportunities and potentials for up-scaling of a selection of cases

SARD Initiative Newsletter

The SARD Initiative Newsletter provides in-depth information about selected news items and topical issues. The third issue was released to electronic subscribers on 10 October 2006 and is now available online. Topics covered include:

Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Indicators that relate to the interactions between food, agro-ecological systems and culture and should be considered in development interventions involving or affecting indigenous people;

A good practice case study on Community-managed livestock production and slaughterhouse; and

The Sustainable Development Facility: information on this Italy-funded pilot project.

The SARD Initiative is grateful to the Government of Italy for financial and technical support to develop the concept and to design the template for this newsletter. To receive the newsletter electronically, or to submit a contribution for the next issue, contact the editor at:
SARD-Initiative@fao.org.

The SARD Project Toolkit

A publication entitled SARD Toolkit for Project Designers and Managers was released in 2006, with co-funding from the Governments of Norway and Italy, to support project staff and consultants, involved at various stages of the project cycle, to improve the sustainability and impacts of agriculture and rural development projects, including those projects that are already on-going. For more information and a copy of the toolkit please visit:
http://www.fao.org/sd/dim_pe2/pe2_060701_en.htm

Guide for Documenting Good Practices

This practical manual was prepared for the SARD Initiative with resources provided by the Government of Norway. Following field tests in Bolivia and Kenya, the manual was revised to respond to user's requirements and released online on 10 November 2006.
For more information, please see th eGood Practices for SARD page.

Solution Exchange Booklet on Promoting SARD through Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

India’s new employment guarantee scheme for disadvantaged rural workers had attracted the attention of several official participants at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development in March. They saw it as a potentially replicable practice that could be of benefit in their countries. FAO, on behalf of the SARD Initiative, generated a set of questions for the Indian Solution Exchange community on Food and Nutrition Security about how the scheme might be used to promote SARD. Responses have been collated by the Solution Exchange team and released on 18 May 2006, in electronic and booklet forms.

Directory of Japanese Sustainable Agriculture Practitioners

This directory was released in 2006 by the Sustainable Agriculture Project of the Asia-Japan Partnership Network for Poverty Reduction (AJPN), with funding support from UNDP. The directory documents nine success stories of Japanese farmers utilizing sustainable farming techniques. Specific information on their backgrounds and expertise, farming principles and methodologies are also included in the text. Highlights include a case of recycling household refuse through separation of organic waste which is turned into fertilizer, and a case of alternative marketing of organic products. These individual farmers’ initiatives demonstrate that alternative ways to conventional agriculture exist and are being successfully implemented in Japan.