The document is based on testimonies and experiences of farmers and extensionists in Latin America and Africa. The cases demonstrate the need for policy environments, institutions, and practices to be integrated to meet the demand for food, to reduce poverty, and to utilise resources in an environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable...

An estimated 500 million small farmers – men and women – produce most of the developing world’s food. Yet their families suffer more hunger than even the urban poor, have higher rates of poverty and enjoy less access to basic social services. Meeting international commitments to halve hunger and poverty...

This report is a review of irrigation technologies for smallholders in the context of improving rural livelihoods, especially in regard to the prospects for sub-Saharan Africa. The role of traditional technologies is evaluated and modern water distribution technologies, such as sprinkler and trickle irrigation, are reviewed. Low-cost irrigation systems, including...

El modelo de crecimiento urbano que Brasil está experimentando en los últimos quince años podría constituir un momento positivo para reactivar su sector rural. Las políticas dirigidas al fortalecimiento y a la creación de nuevas unidades familiares en el sector rural tendrán tanto más éxito cuanto más importantes sean las...

Smallholder irrigation development has shown throughout the developing world that it can be used as a key drought mitigation measure and as a vehicle for the long-term agricultural and macro-economic development of a country. Successful smallholder irrigation schemes can result in increased productivity, improved incomes and nutrition, employment creation, food...

In this issue, we conclude with the last two presentations of our local partners with a description of CREDIF, covering North Africa, and of POSDEV, covering a number of countries in West Africa. Ruth Ochieng, from Isis-WICCE in Uganda, presents the work undertaken by her organisation, which strives to empower...

In the present issue, a large proportion of the columns will be been devoted to the Reflection and Self-Evaluation Workshop held in Brussels on 16-18 October with the partners of the Dimitra Project. We hand over to the partners, who have drawn up two documents on the proceedings of the...

A farm-level survey was carried out in Belarus in the second half of 1999, providing a detailed examination of changes in the three main components of the farming sector - large farm enterprises, households of farm employees, and independent private farms. This report presents a description and analysis of the...

Agriculture has always been an important sector of the Cypriot economy. Following the Turkish invasion of 1974 and the occupation of 38 percent of the country’s territory, including Cyprus' most valuable land and water resources, an accelerated declining trend set in, which is still continuing today. Also, due to the...

Nets for Social Safety is a first –of –its-kind study, specially commissioned by the ICSF, to focus on the growth and changing composition of social security provisions in the fisheries sector of Kerala, a small coastal State in southwest India. John Kurien and Antonyto Paul, the authors of the study,...

The tribal societies of north-eastern India have wet rice cultivation as a land use activity, alongwith shifting agriculture (locally called `Jhum'), and the 'home gardens', which is an imitationof a forest but with economically important species. Wet rice cultivation is done at valleybottoms and sometimes on small terraces constructed at...

During the early nineties the Cyprus government chose the technology of offshore cage culture to develop marine aquaculture, due to the already high exploitation of coastal land by tourism, concerns for environmental issues and the lack of sheltered inland sea sites. Currently there are 8 privately owned commercial sea cage...

This report synthesizes the proceedings of the electronic workshop “Land Water Linkages in Rural Watersheds” hosted by the FAO Land and Water Development Division from 18 September to 27 October 2000. The workshop examined relationships between land use and water resources in rural watersheds. It identified mechanisms and instruments for...

Folleto que da cuenta de la Escuela de Campo de Agricultores, metodología de capacitación participativa. Se basa en el concepto de aprender por descubrimiento y se enfoca en los principios ecológicos. Los agricultores y facilitadores intercambian conocimientos, tomando como base la experiencia y la experimentación a través de métodos sencillos...

Si bien no se puede cuestionar la importancia de la minería en el país y lo que ella representa en términos de ingresos para el fisco, no todo lo que brilla es oro, pues quedan muchas interrogantes detrás de la expansión minera actualmente en curso. Aborda el paro convocado por...

El Ministerio de Agricultura, a través de la Resolución No. 0107 fijó los precios de las maderas en estado natural para el presente año y recategorizó especies de uso comercial. Estas medidas han elevado significativamente los derechos que deben pagar los extractores forestales al Estado. En Ucayali, la Asociación de...

In South Africa the racial and agricultural policies aimed at national food self-sufficiency created an agricultural structure dominated by large, mechanised farms that are owned and operated by a small number of individuals or companies. New agricultural policy should therefore focus more on peasant farming in the subsistence sector in...

Ante la proliferación de procesos judiciales iniciados por los ex-hacendados para que se les restituyan las tierras afectadas por la reforma agraria, los agricultores beneficiarios de ese proceso están exigiendo se dé cumplimiento a la legislación que garantiza sus derechos adquiridos. El Frente de Defensa que los agrupa tiene ahora...

En una primera sesión de trabajo realizada el 14 de diciembre, Conveagro presentó un conjunto de 34 propuestas para atender problemas urgentes del sector, avanzar en el diseño de lineamientos estratégicos y modificar la relación entre el sector público agrario y los productores. La propuesta considera indispensable establecer mecanismos estables...

This document presents technical guidelines for the trainers of farmerextensionists in conservation-effective land management and sustainable crop production for the hilly terrains of Central America. The emphasis of the document is on learning-by-doing, building on farmers’ existing knowledge and experience, and promoting an understanding of the concepts of good land...