In Belgium we have an expression: “all Belgians are born with a brick in their stomach”, meaning that all citizens aspire to build their own house someday. But when bricks are literally eaten, something has gone seriously wrong.  

Onion is a biennial vegetable grown in temperate regions as an annual crop. Onions are especially suitable for smallholder farming in many countries because they require a small amount of initial capital. Onions require a small piece of land and they take a relatively short time to mature. Onions can...

Join an interactive network of policy makers interested in making our food systems sustainable in the face of current global challenges. Through this network you will have the opportunity to meet, learn and get inspired by other policy makers via peer-to-peer exchanges. Share your experiences, get to know the evidence...

Farmers in Uganda started taking care of pigs in their sties because of problems with the pigs that were free roaming. Farmers would not know where the pigs had gone and what they had eaten or whether they had contracted any disease.

Home gardens (HGs) are hotspots of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. We conducted a case study in Tabasco, México, on HG owners’ knowledge of HG ecological, economical and socio-cultural multifunctionality and how it relates to agrobiodiversity as measured by species richness and diversity. The term multifunctionality knowledge refers to owners’ knowledge...

Baobab fruit juice made from the pulp is very healthy, and can be added to porridge and sauces. However, the quality of the pulp can be greatly affected if fruits are not handled well during and after harvest. When baobab pods are damaged and have splits in the shell, moisture...

During the Coronavirus crisis, it has become clear how fragile and vulnerable agro-industrial supply chains can be. However, a movement known as "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA) is at its peak, a model of local marketing providing healthy and nutritious products from the field to the kitchen. Members buy a share...

European farmers are faced with increasing challenges, including the effects of climate change. Agro-ecological approaches can help them to develop more sustainable and resilient farming systems that combine stable yields with enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services. Agro-ecological approaches are inspired by natural ecosystems. They focus on the interactions between plants,...

!is section on Soil fertility management in agroecological farming is supposed to be used together with the trainings on specific commodities. !e training concept is the same as outlined for the trainings in the commodities. We provide this part on soil fertility management as a separate leaflet because it is...

Luis Sinche, un productor de bananos del Perú, continúa recolectando sus frutos, suministrando a los pueblos cercanos productos frescos en época de la pandemia.

Land access issues, long since recognised in international and institutional spaces, are even more urgent in the current context: both due to the COVID-19 pandemic and with the release of the European Commission’s Farm to Fork strategy, which have highlighted the importance of local food systems which can only be...

Mobility in West African countries has long been a traditional adaptation strategy to climatic stressors. Present environmental changes stress the agricultural sector, which accounts for 35 percent of West Africa's GDP and employs over 80 percent of the workforce. Employment in agriculture is so high that decay in agricultural production...

This report elaborated by ‘’Ecologists in Action’’ discusses how climate change affects food production and makes an assessment of the proposed strategies in the framework of international negotiations on climate change. Different issues responsible for climate change are described: among these we find land use change; industrial animal husbandry as another...

Together with others, URGENCI, the international network of Local and Solidarity -based Partnerships for Agroecology, has asked European Union Commissioners and their teams to provide guidance and a clear perspective of the road forward, meeting citizens’ expectations across Europe, by publishing the #EUFarm2Fork by end of April 2020

Unsafe food is a major threat to human health and economies globally. A new project has been kicked off to strengthen official food safety control and risk communication systems in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan, and Turkey. Implemented under the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture, funded by Turkey,...

• Soybeans are a major food crop in the world and they are grown in some parts of Uganda and form an integral and important component in the human and animal nutrition. • It is successful in areas where rainfall is moderate to light during the latter part of the growing...

The capacity for leadership is based on talent, vision and commitment, but it also depends on the ability to understand the functioning of sectors and to interact with people in various contexts, with different points of view. The ‘Leadership in Agroecology and Organic Farming’ training course offers the opportunity to...

Tomato is an annual plant, which can reach a height of over two metres. Three di"erent types of tomato plants can be distinguished: • tall or indeterminate type • semi-bush or semi-indeterminate type • bush or determinate type The tall varieties are the best choice for a long harvest period. They keep growing...

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...

The COVID-19 crisis has created a moment where existing calls for agroecology acquire new relevance. Agroecology provides a path to reconstruct a post-COVID-19 agriculture, one that is able to avoid widespread disruptions of food supplies in the future by territorializing food production and consumption. There are five main areas in...