With financial assistance from the Irish embassy and the embassy of the kingdom of The Netherlands, SNV supports since 2007 fruit marketing cooperatives in Southern Ethiopia. SNV strengthens the cooperatives through facilitating business to business arrangements, business planning and improved operational management, and access to critical services. Results of the...

Urban agriculture may have a role to play in addressing urban food insecurity problems, which are bound to become increasingly important with the secular trend towards the urbanization of poverty and of population in developing regions. Our understanding of the importance, nature and food security implications of urban agriculture is...

Thousands of small scale farmers in India commit duicide, because they can no longer solve their debt problems. Two decades ago they took up modern farming and with the help of government subsidies they started growing commercial crops. In the beginning harvests were good, but as time went on, the...

Pasture is one of the most vital natural resources for Central Asia countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It accounts for nearly 260 million hectares of land resources being a basis for livestock breeding which is an income source for the majority of Central Asia population. Pasture land is...

The rural familiar agroindustry is an alternative in the search for new niche markets, using the greater diversity of existing products and product  differentiation by transforming them inside the property.  Its  implementation  is  considered  an  effective  alternative  as  policy  fot  Rural Development,  but  despite  all  efforts  there  are  many limitations ...

In  the  face  a  complex  food  problems  consists  of  a  scenario  of  nutritional  transition  and  a productive  model  guided  by  the  industrialization  of  agriculture  and  food,  causing  the marginalization of most family farmers, in Brazil there is political and social actions that tend to destabilize  supply  chains  dominate.  In  the ...

In close cooperation with the German Development Service (DED) and the Centre for  international Migration and Development (CIM) a number of projects have been carried out in recent years, ranging from direct support of communities to the promotion of trans-border cooperation and regional partnerships. The successes of the initial years...

The traditional polders in The Netherlands have been formed from the 12th century onwards, when people started creating arable land by draining delta swamps into nearby rivers. In the process, the drained peat started oxidizing, thus soil levels lowered, up to river water levels and lower. Throughout the centuries farmers...

De façon à répondre aux exigences d’économies d’échelle manifestées par les grandes firmes semencières et agroindustrielles, nombreuses ont été les agricultures ayant connu récemment des évolutions non compatibles avec les exigences du développement durable, tant par la dégradation des agro écosystèmes qu’elles induisent, que par le primat des logiques de...

In order to meet economy of scale demands made by large seed and agroindustrial companies, many areas of agriculture have recently evolved in ways which are incompatible with sustainable development, both in terms of damage to agroecosystems and by the continued belief in principles of land concentration and underuse. Farming...

Se caracterizó el comportamiento socioproductivo en las parcelas del Consejo Popular de Santiago de las Vegas. Se realizaron entrevistas directas y observación directa a una muestra representativa del 20% de los parceleros. Se efectuó un análisis de componentes principales como herramienta en la agrupación de los parceleros para la caracterización...

Rotational farming is an agricultural practice that involves alternating cultivation between different plots within the same location whilst leaving the other plots follow. It is often misunderstood, and is considered to be a destructive farming technique which depletes soil nutrient content as it often involves the clearing of land by burning....

Agriculture, particularly family farming, has had, and still has, an important role in many rural communities as a basis for economic activity, local social organization and as a lifestyle, although its economic role has declined over time. The development of agriculture has turned into an industry where profitability is linked...

Human activities have helped to speed up the process of desertification in Burkina Faso. In order to curb this scourge and its disastrous consequences, the NGO “TERRE VERTE” has, since 1989, carried out a rural development project referred to as bocage perimeter, (“Wegoubri” in the Mooré language). This new concept...

Actualmente en nuestro país se están tomando medidas que fomentan y exigen un desarrollo sustentable en el manejo de los suelos del país. A lo largo de la historia hubo períodos de expansión agrícola que fueron acompañados de severa degradación de los suelos, llegando inclusive a dejar grandes áreas inutilizadas...

Take a tour, accompanied by curious sheep and geese, of Mark Cooper's self-sufficient small farm. Over several years, he transformed a rundown house and hillsides of berry brambles into pasture and gardens where he produces and preserves most of his family's food. Visit the Goose Grotto in a constructed pond,...

Located in the center of Niger, Keita Department is a 4,860 sq km plateau with rocky slopes and valleys forming a complex system of watersheds subject to strong winds and water erosion. Plateau slopes covered by forests in 1962 were completely deforested by 1984. As in other Sahelian nations, droughts...

Burkina Faso has few natural resources and a weak industrial base. Approximately 90 percent of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture. Food insecurity is commonplace in many parts of the country.1 During the 1960s, Burkina Faso’s rainfall averaged 700 mm/year. Along with other countries in West Africa’s Sahel, the...

Agroecology is the application of ecological principles to the interactions between human beings and their environment, as well as to their consequences, with the goal of minimising the negative effects of certain human activities. It aims at protecting the environment, ensuring the sustainable renewal of the natural resources (water, soil,...

Senegal, like all Sahelian countries, suffers from the combined effects of population growth and climate disturbances that affect its productive bio- system and induce degradation. This is manifested in different forms depending on the physical environment and production systems in different eco-geographic areas. Several factors are responsible for the degradation...