This Working Document provides practical guidelines for upgrading agricultural retail markets in rural areas and analyses the strategic potential of upgrading as an important component of rural development. This document presents methodological steps for the design and implementation of appropriate programmes, rather than a single model to replicate. The objective is to propose...

Food systems of Indigenous Peoples who retain connection to long-evolved cultures and patterns of living in local ecosystems present a treasure of knowledge that contributes to well-being and health, and can benefit all humankind. This book seeks to define and describe the diversity in food system use, nutrition and health...

The guidelines resulting from this report are principally directed towards sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the lack of farm power and appropriate machinery is having a deleterious effect on rural livelihoods. The farm power and machinery supply chain includes a range of stakeholders from manufacturers and importers through dealers, hire service...

‘Social Dimensions of Marine Protected Area Implementation in India: Do Fishing Communities Benefit?’ is a workshop organized by ICSF at Chennai on 21-22 January 2009. This publication—the India MPA Workshop Proceedings—contains the prospectus of the workshop, a report of the proceedings and the consensus statement that was reached by organizations...

The increased demand for high quality products in export markets, coupled with Pacific Island Countries (PICs) national desire to protect the environment, biodiversity and family farming structures, lead to assume that organic agriculture could offer good prospects for PICs development. Besides market opportunities, organic agriculture could increase PICs food self-reliance...

In parts of Vietnam, the van chai is an old, established institution for managing local fisheries and fishing communities. Its principal objectives are: (i) religious functions; (ii) mutual assistance; (iii) specification of the behaviour, rights and obligations of fisheries stakeholders; (iv) catch disposal; (v) governance of fishing operations; (vi) conflict...

In the past two decades, Japanese agriculture has been shrinking under policies of deregulation, with domestic production being replaced rapidly by imports, in which multinational agribusinesses are key players. Today there is an increasing presence of multinational corporations in Japanese rural sites. Dole Japan, a subsidiary of Dole Food Company,...

About 8 per cent of the Indian population belongs to a category listed as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ enumerated in the Schedule to Article 342 of the Constitution of India. Tribal people have been seen to be strongly associated with the forests, hills and remote areas, practicing a unique life style, having...

This brief has been prepared for the UN Convention on Climate Change meeting in Copenhagen, December 2009, to raise awareness of the imminent impacts of climate change on food security in Pacific island countries and territories and to urge participants to consider the importance of mainstreaming food security in climate-related...

There is barrier among farmers in developing countries to convert to organic farming. This study examines factors affecting the decision of Thai vegetable farmers to convert and suggests possible measures to improve conversion

The increased demand for high quality products in export markets, coupled with Pacific Island Countries (PICs) national desire to protect the environment, biodiversity and family farming structures, lead to assume that organic agriculture could offer good prospects for PICs development. Besides market opportunities, organic agriculture could increase PICs food self-reliance...

This paper presents the general trends of demand and supply of organic products in Asia and the Pacific. This regional market is put in perspective within the global organic agrifood market and the current economic conditions that may have a great impact on the development of organic agriculture in Asia...

During two decades of monopoly cocoa marketing by the Vanuatu Commodity Marketing Board (VCMB) farmers were not able to take advantage of significant price premiums available for organic and single origin cocoa. It is only now that these markets have become a realistic prospect. The VOCGA case study looks at...

We are Gunis (traditional healers) and medicinal plants conservation farmers from the Mewar Region of Rajasthan in India. The Gunis among us take our name from guna, which is a Sanskrit word that has three meanings: knowledge, healing and virtue. Anyone can have knowledge, but Gunis are those of us...

This publication is a report of a Workshop that brought together people from a wide range of institutions - farmers, researchers, ecologists extensionists, policy makers, donors – from 40 countries who share a common concern about the non-sustainability of ways in which farm land is now being used and who...

In developing the Scientific Conceptual Framework for the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme, FAO seeks to accomplish the challenging task of integrating perspectives from those sciences that are most directly concerned with conservation and development: ecology, agronomy and forestry, economics, and anthropology. The goal is to scientifically conceptualise...

Problem statement: The most pressing problem for Bangladesh agriculture is the current state of gradual decreasing of soil fertility, stagnating crop yields and declining productivity in a range of food crops. According to crop production scientists, Integrated Soil Fertility (ISF) and Nutrient Management (NM) is an advanced approach that can...

The researchers and studies conducted under the LSFM project were intended to contribute to the process of effectively linking small farmers to market and maximize their benefits from the value chain. In addition, the studies also aimed to help decision-making of the project's in-country anchors and in formulating strategic directions,...

This publication contains the initial outputs of the research component of AsiaDHRRA's Regional Project on Linking Small Farmers to Markets (LSFM) as implemented by Dina Besa (InDHRRA) in Indonesia. This report is part of the outputs of the participatory market researchers and studies on specific commodities chosen in each pilot...

The private sector can help smallholders to participate in modern supply chains. This type of collaboration will be critical to agricultural development.