The product of a two-year collaborative effort among Khon Kaen University, Thailand, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and other partners, this publication sheds light on the need to promote underutilized and indigenous food sources for overcoming malnutrition and hunger in the Asia-Pacific region. I sincerely hope...

The right to food sovereignty is a part of the Plurinational State of Bolivia’s constitution, but what does this actually mean for family farmers? The truth is that many people in rural areas are far from having access to adequate food and nutrition, with 37% of children under five reported...

The International Year of Family Farming was launched as part of a global campaign to reinforce awareness and support for small scale and family farmers around the world. The move to focus on family farmers for the international year was driven by strong advocacy from civil society, mainly the World...

This technical guide has been prepared under the direction of Francesca Romano in collaboration with a team from the Forest Peoples Programme and Samuel Nguiffo of the Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) in Cameroon. The guide was written by Marcus Colchester and Sophie Chao, with contributions from participants...

Food fairs are an important tool and space to promote food sovereignty as they take place in local public spaces and within people’s own socio-cultural settings. One excellent example was a food fair in Ghana, organised by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD). Women farmers exhibited traditional...

A three-day technical meeting has come to a close for the Regional Conference for the Near East and North Africa (NERC32). During the conference, government ministers and senior officials from countries across the region reviewed the overall state of food and agriculture. They also discussed urgent issues facing countries, including...

Improving the situation of family farmers is a burning need. And as they produce an estimated 70% of the world’s food, it is an issue that affects us all. The 2014 International Year of Family Farming aimed to create a better understanding of family farming and support the development of...

I am a family farmer. I know my soil, my climate and how to make things grow, says Joan Brady. And as farmers, especially women and youth, we will deliver answers from our passions, our expertise and our resilience.

El evento buscó contribuir al acercamiento de actores y actoras sociales y políticas en Colombia, en El Salvador y en Guatemala en temas de gobernanza ambiental, transformación de conflictos y participación política de las mujeres. Los procesos de paz de El Salvador, Guatemala y de Colombia tienen diferencias y similitudes,...

This edition opens with a report of the last session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which has helped to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment feature prominently in the post-2015 Development Agenda. This will take over from the Millennium Development Goals, whose 2015 deadline is now close. Today, the post-2015 Development Agenda...

This issue highlights experiences of development approaches that are helping in the fight against poverty in rural areas. Reducing rural poverty is one of FAO’s strategic objectives for the coming years, to which the Dimitra project is making a special contribution. Innovative methodologies have been developed which seek to place...

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

Programme Italien pour la sécurité alimentaire (PISA), appui aux transformatrices de produits halieutiques au Sénégal.

Discussion paper on scaling up agro-ecological approaches: In recent years, especially since the agriculture prices spike in 2008 that sparked ‘food riots’ across Africa, Asia and Latin America, a growing consensus has emerged on the need for proceeding to major changes in agricultural and food systems in order to ensure...

Th is paper is a first step in a process to create enabling environments for forest producer organizations (FPOs) worldwide. It focuses on what governments should and should not do to enable FPOs to form, thrive and create benefi ts for their members and the resources they manage. Further work...

The United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) to recognize the importance of family farming in reducing poverty and improving global food security. The IYFF aims to promote new development policies, particularly at the national but also regional levels, that will help smallholder and family farmers eradicate hunger,...

Este documento es una versión sencilla y amigable del plan para implementar la política nacional de desarrollo rural integral (PNDRI), que es utilizado para socializarlo y promover, a nivel territorial, el involucramiento de la población en su ejecución.  En la página web http://pndri.scep.gob.gt/es/material-de-apoyo están disponibles las versiones de este documento en los...

This publication summarizes the conversation that took place at the “Family Forestry is Family Farming” event co-organized by the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF) and the International Family Forestry Alliance (IFFA)on Thursday 26th June 2014, World Forest Week FAO, Rome. In the celebration of the International Year of Family Farming...

Traditional fishworkers have long been forced to adapt to the forces of nature, and they are now confronted with the  new threats of climate change, global warming, sea-level rise and ocean acidification. What will be the potential impacts of climate change on the already vulnerable and marginalized small-scale fishing communities...

This infographic explains why Family farming is inextricably linked to national and global food security. Both in developing and developed countries, family farming is the predominant form of agriculture in the food production sector.  Family farming includes all family-based agricultural activities, and it is linked to several areas of rural development.