Smallholder family farmers are people working in any area of agriculture who derive a significant portion of their income from farming, involve members of the family in managing the farm and rely predominantly on family labour. These farms vary in size, ranging from 0.25 hectares to 10 hectares depending on...

En el marco de la estrategia de Desarrollo Rural, el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural creó el Programa de Apoyo a la Agricultura Familiar- PAF, con el propósito de combatir la pobreza en el sector rural, ampliar la clase media del campo y cerrar las brechas entre lo urbano...

Recent high-level policy papers call for scaling-up agroforestry to sustainably increase agricultural production and maintain environmental services. Evidence suggests that this will not be achieved by wide scale promotion of a few iconic agroforestry practices. Instead, three key issues need to be addressed. First, fine-scale variation in social, economic and...

The Common Agricultural Policy shapes how Europe produces food, but in many ways its no longer fit for purpose. In this video, Arc2020 and Friends of the Earth Europe spotlight the options and opportunities in the CAP for choosing farming methods which are good for people and the planet -...

Uganda’s landscape is dominated by Small scale farmers who maintain trees on-farm to satisfy their basic needs. On-farm trees contribute to reduction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and in this way contribute climate change mitigation. It has been observed that some farms are not managing trees appropriately. In order...

En la 66ª sesión de la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas se declaró oficialmente 2014 como el “Año Internacional de la Agricultura Familiar” (AIAF), con el objetivo reconocer el papel fundamental de los agricultores familiares en el desarrollo rural y otorgarles un lugar prioritario en las políticas agrícolas, ambientales...

The countries of the Southeastern European (SEE) region pronounced their intention to move towards integration with the European Union (EU) in order to create a stable, united, and more prosperous region. The EU integration process should foster political stability and socio-economic and sustainable development in the region. The SEE candidate...

This CIRAD ‘Technology transfer and development newsletter’ underlines the central challenge of building innovation capacities of family producers and CIRAD’s commitment to the issues since the start of the ‘family agriculture and globalisation programme’.

This publication provides an overview of the achievements made, challenges faced and lessons learned throughout the five year Purchase for Progress (P4P) pilot. It highlights the experience of farmers, governments and other partners in the 20 pilot countries.

This Report on the typology of the agricultural holdings in France is based on data from the agricultural census 2000. It uses three main criteria: labor type, commercialization and management type. A specific variable related to the direct marketing is used and put into debates. The identification of the diversification...

This document provides a review of the scientific literature on agreocology, including global, regional, national and local studies. In the Annex, the performance of various agroecological management systems are described and compared. Based on these findings, key steps towards an agroecological transition are outlined.

In 2008, the initiative to declare an International Year of Family Farming was launched by the World Rural Forum (WRF), in collaboration with more than 350 organizations from 60 countries on 5 continents. These included major regional networks of family farmers’ organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2011,...

This briefing describes the stages, benefits and challenges of organising, and explains FFF’s strategies, and how governments can help producer groups transform forest and farming landscapes.

Somalia’s livestock sector is based on nomadic pastoralism with a growing private sector led export industry and the mainstay of the Somali economy. Despite its many problems, the Horn of Africa nation comes second in global live sheep exports after Australia.

SPSP et Biodiversité Échanges et Diffusion d’Expériences (BEDE) présentent un film d'Anne BERSON: "En route vers l'autonomie en semences en Afrique de l'Ouest, La foire sous-régionale des semences paysannes à Djimini, Sénégal". Une délégation de paysans de la sous-région et de France a sillonné une partie du Sénégal de Thiès à...

Inclusive procurement is a deliberate way for governments to purchase goods or services from specific unfavoured or vulnerable supplier categories in order to advance social and economic development. However, public procurements must also meet transparency requirements in place to maintain integrity and to safeguard the expenditure of public funds. This...

At its 11th session in June 2007, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture emphasized the urgent need to conserve and sustainably use FGR, and included a report on The State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources in its Multi-Year Programme of Work. On the basis of the...

This Briefing Note presents a series of resilience indicators as examples for measuring the resilience of local food systems based on community consultations in Honduras and Nicaragua. It is primarily addressed to food security and resilience practitioners in Central America and for those working on climate and food security metrics...

The free of charge SAFA Tool (version 2.2.40) is created by FAO to undertake sustainability assessment, as described in the SAFA Guidelines (version 3.0). The SAFA Tool guides users through the four SAFA assessment steps: “Mapping”, “Contextualization”, “Indicators” and “Reporting”. The indicators used are those offered in the Guidelines’ complement:...

Today family farming is the predominant form of agriculture in the world. Communication lies at the core of the process of change that involves family farming. Smallholder family farmers and rural communities require access to information and communication to make their voices heard and change their lives for the better....