For nearly three decades the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has focused its mission on helping developing countries turn agriculture into an engine of propoor, sustainable economic growth. Conflicts and natural disasters have often interfered with this mission, and disrupted the long-term work in strengthening human and institutional...

Developing nations such as Fiji are grappling with how they can utilise their environmental resources to improve local living conditions while protecting the integrity of ecological systems. Different development approaches are adopted but in these areas, the environment is altered and polluted as a result of sustained human activities. The...

APAARI is a unique voluntary, membership-based, self-mandated, apolitical and multistakeholder partnership organization in the Asia-Pacific region. Since its establishment in 1990, it has significantly contributed towards addressing regional agricultural research needs. The close links, networks, partnerships and collaboration with stakeholders that APAARI has established over the years, as well as its goodwill, authority...

The purpose of this report is to contribute to a greater understanding of the roles women and men play in the different stages of agriculture as well as other production and income-generating activities. Little research exists on gender roles within Afghanistan and the focus of much research and most programming...

In our 30-year story, we share the reasons why we exist and the inspirations that keep us growing and flowing as a community of individuals and living structures dedicatet to the development of humanity among people in Asia, especially the poor. We thank all the people and partners who shared...

Jambudwip is a 20-sq km island in the district of South 24-Parganas, in the Indian State of West Bengal, in the Sunderbans delta. Since at least 1955, Jambudwip has been used as a base for fishery operations and as a fish drying site, mostly by small-scale, artisanal fishworkers. Behundi jal...

This is the proceedings of the Indian Ocean Conference "Forging Unity: Coastal Communities and the Indian Ocean's Future". The conference as an important opportunity to explore the idea of an ‘Indian Ocean community’ by bringing together representatives from all frontiers of the Indian Ocean (with the exception of the Middle...

The People, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC) project is a largely farmer-driven demonstration project consisting of five ecosystem clusters and spread over eight countries: Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Papua New Guinea and Brazil. PLEC was initiated in 1992 by the United Nations University (UNU) as an international...

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...

An estimated 500 million small farmers – men and women – produce most of the developing world’s food. Yet their families suffer more hunger than even the urban poor, have higher rates of poverty and enjoy less access to basic social services. Meeting international commitments to halve hunger and poverty...

Nets for Social Safety is a first –of –its-kind study, specially commissioned by the ICSF, to focus on the growth and changing composition of social security provisions in the fisheries sector of Kerala, a small coastal State in southwest India. John Kurien and Antonyto Paul, the authors of the study,...

The tribal societies of north-eastern India have wet rice cultivation as a land use activity, alongwith shifting agriculture (locally called `Jhum'), and the 'home gardens', which is an imitationof a forest but with economically important species. Wet rice cultivation is done at valleybottoms and sometimes on small terraces constructed at...

During her visit to Indonesia, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific, Kundhavi Kadiresan, met with Indonesia’s Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman, in order to exchange views on the growing collaboration between FAO and the Government of Indonesia.

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...

Smallholder poultry production (i.e. family poultry) is an appropriate system that makes the best use of locally available resources. Family flocks are important providers of eggs and meat as well as being valued in religious and cultural life. There are three production systems for family poultry - free range, backyard...

In the last two decades prior to 1990’s a serious and severely damaging fish disease has been spreading through countries of the Asia Pacific region with dangerous consequences. Not only is this disease- now officially termed Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome (EUS)- a scientific puzzle, it is also a worrisome social problem....

The topic of land use planning has featured on a number of occasions in this series of Natural Resource Economics Discussion Papers. Within the wider topic of land use planning, the issue of rural smallholdings has received attention in Discussion Papers Nos. 3, 5 and 8. This ninth Discussion Paper...

In New Zealand, as in other industrialized western countries, important changes in community values are taking place. There is increasing interest in the quality of life. The expansion of cities which took place post World War II often resulted in a deterioration of urban living conditions. As people became dissatisfied...