The official policy of the present Norwegian government is to encourage fewer, bigger farms. With only 3% of the land suitable for farming, Norwegian agricultural production is limited and most of the food comes from abroad. In the fjords, there are big salmon farms largely for export, and Norway still...

Pulse panchayat is an integrated approach in establishing a sustainable production, value addition and marketing system. The initiative implemented by a Farmer Producer Company in Tamil Nadu, is moving towards achieving self-sufficiency in pulse production.

Current situation in European agriculture has to meet new challenges due to volatile agricultural markets and uncertain political situation in neighbouring countries. Past events have shown various bottlenecks in contemporary food production and trade. In order to provide for global food security, it is necessary to intensify agriculture, boost production,...

Forests are vital to achieving the SDGs and the aims of the Paris Agreement. Without action to protect forests, the problems posed by poverty and climate change will only get worse, 

Josef Kienzle speaks about mechanization: What is it, how can it improve small farmers’ livelihoods and how does it bring perspectives to the youth in rural areas? 

For the past half century agricultural innovation has denied a voice to the many groups who work outside the profession of science – farmers, food providers, women and the urban poor. The value of their expertise gained through practical experience must be recognised in the production and validation of knowledge....

Just days before the progressive National Assembly of Venezuela was dissolved, deputies passed a law which lays the foundation for a truly democratic food system. The country has not only banned genetically modified seeds, but set up democratic structures to ensure that seeds cannot be privatized and indigenous knowledge cannot...

This edition of the RAF Newsletter is a special coverage from FAO-RAF that takes into account activities marking the 29th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa held in Abidjan. It presents to readers pictorial narratives and captions of the conference with key quotes from key personalities of the...

The fish in the sea are a public resource and provide not only a vital source of protein and nutrients for billions of people globally but also 60 million jobs in the primary sector, 90% of them in small scale fishing and 15% of them women. Closer to home, the European...

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India. It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.  The movement in Karnataka state was...

The share of uncultivated foods from the forest has gradually declined in the diets of Paharia tribes in Jharkhand. Initiatives like conservation, preservation, processing of uncultivated foods has helped them regain their position and enhance the dietary diversity of the communities, also addressing the issues of hunger and malnutrition.

Organic Agriculture (OA) is a rapidly growing sector in Africa, with strong links to economic and sociocultural development in the continent (Willer and Kilcher, 2012; Auerbach, 2013). OA can also be seen as a relevant tool to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 12, 13 and 15 on sustainable...

Twenty-one Asian countries are participating in a roundtable discussion as part of the FAO’s World Programme for the Census for Agriculture 2020 (WCA 2020).  The roundtable discussion was opened by Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. The census, held once every ten years,...

Lone Andersen is an organic dairy farmer from the west of Denmark. Along with her husband, she has been working with robotic technology since 2009 and she says “it has not only improved welfare for the cows, but also for us as farmers!” 

Les activités agricoles génèrent, parallèlement à la production de biens agricoles, des externalités négatives (coûts sociaux) ou positives (bénéfices ou aménités) non pris en compte par le marché. La réduction des externalités négatives et l’accroissement des externalités positives représentent des atouts pour la collectivité, qui peuvent justifier un soutien financier de la société....

This note focuses on the topic of distress migration and youth in protracted crises, and the possible solutions from the JFFLS approach, using case studies of FAO interventions. Migration is a common phenomenon in protracted crises, mainly resulting from displacement due to conflict, natural disasters and /or the deterioration of...

This report is aimed at readers who seek to build economic evidence in support of the inclusion of actions on agriculture in climate change plans and programmes, particularly at the national level under the umbrella of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the December 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to restrict...

While agro-chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides are often promoted as inputs that increase agricultural productivity by limiting a range of pre-harvest losses, their use may have negative human health and labor productivity implications. We explore the relationship between agro-chemical use and the value of crop output at the...

Floods, droughts, heat waves, cold spells, and other natural disasters are large sources of risk for farmers. For instance, in semiarid areas of India, 89 percent of farming households cited drought as the largest risk to agricultural production. Climate change may make weather patterns more extreme and unpredictable, further exposing...

Pastoralism in Africa faces new challenges in an era of climate change, despite some improvements in policy and legislative frameworks as well as sporadic investment in pastoral development. There are concerns that pastoralism will not be sustainable in a climate-affected world, and this is seeing the return of policies to settle...