This video shows how to manage pastures so that the cows have good grass throughout the growing season. The farm is set up for fully grazing a herd of Kiwi-Cross with seasonal calving.

Over 240 videos from the Organic Farm Knowledge Platform are now available on its own YouTube channel organised into six playlists, along with a short introduction video.

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Agricultural practices contribute considerably to emissions of greenhouse gases. So far, knowledge on the impact of organic compared to non-organic farming on soil-derived nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions is limited. We investigated N2O and CH4fluxes with manual chambers during 571 days in a grass-clover– silage maize – green...

This study provides a comparative analysis of global agricultural policies aimed at drawing lessons for the future of the CAP. Against the background of the main trends in agricultural support as well as recent changes and new initiatives in global agricultural policies, an in depth analysis is made of selected...

The 4th session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on a UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas began in Geneva.  With this, the bottom up process to strengthen the legitimacy of the demands of rural peoples around the world has reached a crucial...

François Meienberg has worked for the Berne Declaration since 1991, with a focus on access and benefit sharing (ABS), intellectual property rights, and agriculture. In this interview, Mr Meienberg reflects on the implementation of the ABS system so far.

Association of private farming of the Czech Republic organized an International Conference on family farms and Common Agricultural Policy of EU. The event was held in Brno on 4 - 6th of April 2016. 10 European countries attended the conference. Herewith volume 9. Presentation of Switzerland

On the 30th of June, 2016, Dr Stephan Rist and Mrs Bettina Scharrer, from the Centre for Development and Environment and Dr. Moser, from the Archives of Rural History – both structures within the University of Bern, Switzerland – hosted the first workshop of a project called “The importance of solidarity...

Report on a project looking at three enterprises involved in short supply chains: Willem & Drees in the Netherlands, Pico Bio in Switerland and Cooperativa Agricoltura Nuova in Italy.

Six portraits of farming families from all over the country

The third European Forest Week will be held in conjunction with Silva2015, the Joint Session of the UNECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (COFFI); and the FAO European Forestry Commission (EFC). It will be hosted by the Government of Switzerland in the alpine village of Engelberg from 2–6...

Sustainable management of forests, which cover 33 percent of Europe’s land area, will come into focus this week at the joint session of the FAO European Forestry Commission and the UNECE Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (Silva2015).

Between 1990 and 2009 the number of small farms in Switzerland halved and the average farm size doubled. With family farming chosen as the theme for this year's World Food Day, leading activist Vandana Shiva is calling for more support to small farmers. Shiva is an “earth democracy” activist and founder...

The growing number of local agriculture initiatives and their diversity reflects the population's need to reconnect with basic values and their raising concern about sustainability. Alternative forms of (sub-) urban agriculture, such as direct selling, basket delivery services and community-supported agriculture (CSA) are developing. Are these initiatives specific, regarding “resilience”...

In constrained environments such as mountainous and Mediterranean areas the sustainable use of forage resources by domestic herbivores has to combine production, conservation of high environmental value areas and product quality. The sustainability of animal production systems relies on their ability to reconcile economic performance based on the added value...

Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) have established in parallel to conventional food chains, playing a key role in the emerging food networks that are continuously arising as an alternative to the globalized agri-food model. The diversities and particularities of the experiences existing all over the world (box schemes, farmers’ markets,...

Cette année, le rapport de situation s’intéresse aux exploitations paysannes familiales, lesquelles constituent encore et toujours la forme d’exploitation habituelle même si elles sont confrontées à divers problèmes. C’est pourquoi l’ONU a déclaré 2014 «Année internationale de l’agriculture familiale». Les petites et moyennes exploitations familiales produisent 70% de toutes les...

le rapport de situation s’intéresse aux exploitations paysannes familiales, lesquelles constituent encore et toujours la forme d’exploitation habituelle même si elles sont confrontées à divers problèmes. C’est pourquoi l’ONU a déclaré 2014 «Année internationale de l’agriculture familiale». Les petites et moyennes exploitations familiales produisent 70% de toutes les denrées alimentaires...

Focus group discussions were conducted about ethical values among organic producers and other stakeholders in Switzerland. The aim was to contribute to the elaboration of principles for the new EU regulation for organic food and farming as part of the EU Organic-Revision project.