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...

In the last few years Croatian economy is restructuring through the processes of market liberalization and closing to EU, which is demanding some significant changes. Agriculture is in the process of reforms on the basis of CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) policies of the EU, and those changes are producing different...

This paper reviews marine biodiversity, coastal communities' traditional ecological knowledge systems (TEKS) and the biodiversity they have conserved, and the industrial exploitation of marine genetic resources; it then analyzes TRIPS and the CBD as applied to marine biodiversity, and the implications of TRIPS and CBD for both coastal States and...

Subsistence agriculture is closely linked to a low level of economic development. We find it both in today's less developed countries and in the early stages of industrialised countries. Typically, subsistence agriculture is characterized by a low-external input level and low productivity (per land and/or per labour). In these situations...

Survey results indicate that on the whole, individual farms in transition countries are far from pure subsistence operations. The majority of farms categorized as individual – household plots and independent peasant farms – sell at least some of their output. The proportion of output sold by these farms is quite...

The transformation of the political and economic systems in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) was driven by the desire to combine political freedom with improved living conditions. Market-oriented reform is the essence of transformation for the former socialist planned economies. However, considerable segments of Eastern European and...

Bulgaria began the transformation of its agricultural sector early in the reform process. The chosen path of land reform was radical and aimed at restoring the status quo enjoyed half a century ago. The outcome of this slow and complicated process was a very fragmented structure of land ownership and...

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...

From the point of view of promises made ten years ago, the transition of the food sector of many Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) is considered weak and somehow disappointing (MACOURS and SWINNEN 2000). The development of the agricultural sector as the domestic raw material producer for food processing...

In this paper we discuss the developmental perspectives of subsistence agriculture in the wider framework of structural change within an entire economy. We put forward the proposition that subsistence agriculture in Southeastern Poland must largely be understood and interpreted as one single stage of a mid- to long-term process that...

Romanian Agriculture went through major transformations after the political changes of December 1989, due especially to the structural reorganization of land ownership. Agrarian reform started in 1990 with the liquidation of the socialist cooperatives and regulated by the new land ownership law (No. 18/1991), along with a whole series of...

Subsistence agriculture is a phenomenon that is presently encountered not only in developing countries, but also in the Central and Eastern European transition countries (CEECs). The various land reforms implemented in Eastern Europe have led to differences in the land tenure and farming systems and have influenced the access to...

This leaflet covers the steps for implementing Conservation Agriculture. When correctly implemented and under adequate circumstances, conservation agriculture can constitute a valid tool for improving rural livelihoods and fostering bottom-up sustainable rural development.

The aim of this contribution is to show what official data are available and what statements can be made concerning the importance of subsistence farming in Georgia. Combining the official figures with observations of the Georgian situation provided insight to the significance of subsistence farming for the Georgian society. It...

Three of the most important Russian agrarian institutions are the subsistence household farm (personal auxiliary farm), the collective farm, and the district administration. Before collectivisation, the Russian peasant farms were primarily subsistence farms. Each peasant farm had two types of land plots: a farmstead plot and field plot(s). After 1917...

During transition, many Ukrainian agricultural enterprises found themselves in a deep economic crisis. Generally, the privatisation and restructuring of the enterprises was merely formal. Agriculture mainly suffers from an adverse  overall economic situation, liquidity problems, and poor infrastructure. In the 1990s the accumulated decline of agricultural output was 51%. In...

The transition process in Russia, which started vigorously at the beginning of the 1990s, has yielded negative economic growth rates for almost a decade, with the exceptions of 1997 and 1999. Agriculture and domestic food industries in particular have suffered from the ongoing transition process and the associated restructuring of...

Como parte de las reformas de la Constitución, se ha incorporado un capítulo denominado sobre los "Derechos de los pueblos orginarios" en el título II, Del Estado y la Nación

Una serie de estudios recientes han encontrado que los supermercados se han transformado en un actor dominante de los sistemas agroalimentarios de América Latina y el Caribe.

Cultural methods such as crop fertilization can affect susceptibility of plants to insect pests by altering plant tissue nutrient levels. Research shows that the ability of a crop plant to resist or tolerate insect pests and diseases is tied to optimal physical, chemical and mainly biological properties of soils. Soils...