Local agricultural knowledge in dry-land land-use systems is centred on the conservation, use and optimisation of soil moisture and soil organic matter. Additionally, biodiversity is carefully managed and nurtured to interface with hydrological and nutrient cycling to provide for ecosystem resilience, food security and diversity, and risk minimisation.

For Poland, the last decade of the 20th century was a time of intensive social, political and economic change. Poland was confronted with the necessity of quick but deep changes in the economy, as well as in state administration and the functioning of newly-established self-government structures. As a result of...

During the past decade and a half considerable effort has been put into agricultural restructuring in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that are undergoing transition to a market economy. The last decade has also coincided with considerable increase in inequality in all transition economies. The fall in...

In this paper, the processes of adapting to the market economy, which the agricultural credit market in Poland underwent during the 1990-2003 period, is examined. Under conditions of low agricultural income and the necessity of broad and deep restructuring in Polish agriculture, the credit market, as an external source of...

During the 1990’s transition period for Eastern Europe, the European Association for Animal production (EAAP) carried out numerous activities in support of restructuring the animal production sector in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). This resulted in a large number of publications on animal production system and issues related...

The objective of the Nutrition Country Profiles (NCP) is to provide concise analytical summaries describing the food and nutrition situation in individual countries with background statistics on food-related factors. The profiles present consistent and comparable statistics in a standard format. This pre-defined format combines a set of graphics, tables and...

"Diagnóstico Rural Participativo" (DRP) es, después de "Preparación y Ejecución de Talleres de Capacitación – una guía práctica", la segunda publicación del Proyecto Comunicación y Didáctica y se entiende como un manual práctico para la preparación y ejecución de un DRP. En los primeros capítulos se presentan el objetivo, nuestra visión...

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...

Secondary forests in Africa Tropical secondary forests are those forests that have developed after clearance (usually by humans) of the original natural forest. Although not appearing as such in statistics, tropical secondary forests occur throughout the tropics, including Africa, and the area is extensive and increasing rapidly. Tropical secondary forests are usually...

Estudios empíricos de mano de obra familiar en el sector rural suponen, sin pruebas de respaldo, que la decisión de uso del recurso en la producción agropecuaria es separable de las decisiones de consumo y de la asignación del tiempo familiar al trabajo dentro y fuera de la explotación y...

Norway, on Europe’s northern fringe, is characterised by small-scale farming. The choice of crops and their yields are limited by the Nordic climate. Farm policies promote decentralisation and a varied farm structure in order to secure rural settlement, food security, food safety, environmental quality and sustainability. Agriculture receives substantial public...

This publication discusses the processes above, within and below the soil that enable water to move and crops to grow, and is intended to help land users make better use and take better care of these basic resources.The document will contribute to raising awareness of possibilities for better use of...

A Satellite Event on Biodiversity and the Ecosystem Approach in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was held on the occasion of the Ninth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, in FAO, Rome, 12-13 October 2002. An informal presentation of the Satellite Event’s discussions and results...

Nowhere is the link between the environment and poverty more pronounced than in highly fragile ecosystems, where inhabitants are often compelled to degrade natural resources as they struggle to survive on inhospitable land. IFAD’s drive to break this vicious cycle has led to the development of a number of replicable...

Based on a review of its history, its present structure and its objective in the future, agroecology is defined as an integrative discipline that includes elements from agronomy, ecology, sociology and economics. Agroecology’s credentials as a separate scientific discipline were measured against the norms of science, defined by Robert King...

Securing food and a livelihood is inextricably linked to the exploitation of the natural resources base (land, water and forest) in Ethiopia, where over 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas and depend on smallholder agriculture. The pressure of intense human activity and improper farming and management practices...

This leaflet covers the main aspects of soil compaction in Conservation Agriculture. Conservation agriculture optimizes soil structure for reduced-cost, sustainable cropping systems that maximize the use of rainfall and irrrigation water for improved and more guaranteed productivity. The overall outcome is the more productive soil system that obtains the best from...

La pobreza rural constituye uno de los mayores problemas de América Latina y del Caribe. En América Central la incidencia de la pobreza alcanza a casi la mitad (49.9%) de la población. En 1999, 17,5 millones de centroamericanos tenían ingresos por debajo de la línea de pobreza y 9.3 millones...

El Centro Andino para la Formación de Líderes Sociales, CAFOLIS, inició formalmente sus actividades en el mes de septiembre del 2003, sin embargo, su nacimiento obedece a un proceso que arrancó en el año 2000 y se nutre de la larga experiencia de sus integrantes en procesos de educación popular...

Este documento es el resultado de una investigación encargada para evaluar las implicaciones del acuerdo sobre los aspectos de los derechos de propiedad intelectual relacionados con el comercio (ADPIC) y del Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB). También elucida las implicaciones de ambos acuerdos para el acceso a los recursos...