Quinoa, once a staple food of only the indigenous people in the Andes, has become a darling of food aficionados around the world in recent years. So popular it has grown that even some fast food restaurant chains have now dishes and salads with it on their menus. Its exceptional...

In 2010, severe flooding killed nearly 2 000 people in Pakistan and wiped out 1.6 million homes. Whole villages were submerged, and families lost not only their homes, but also their livestock and standing crops – 2.4 million hectares of soon-to-be-harvested crops were destroyed, and estimated agriculture losses stood at...

The two studies in this report explore these issues further using empirical quantitative surveys as well as qualitative fieldwork from a cross-section of developing economies in South and SouthEast Asia. The first study is an empirical investigation of the digital gender divide amongst the poor (broadly called the Bottom of...

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...

This publication provides real life examples on how to re-engage youth in agriculture. It shows how tailor-made educational programmes can provide rural youth with the skills and insights needed to engage in farming and adopt environmentally friendly production methods. Many of the initiatives and approaches reported in this study originate...

The Gwadar-Lasbela Livelihoods Support Project will cover the two coastal districts of Gwadar and Lasbela in the province of Balochistan, where over 60 per cent of the population live in poverty. The project will primarily target poor rural households in 382 villages in Gwadar and Lasbela, including small-scale landowners or landless...

As part of our larger strategy to adapt smallholders in drylands to climate change, ICARDA’s science has sharpened its focus on producing more with less in irrigated and agropastoral systems, and sustainably intensifying cereal-based rain-fed production systems through research platforms in Egypt, Ethiopia and Morocco.

Zinc is an important nutrient for human health, especially for the growth of children (Caulfield and Black 2004). In 2011 Pakistan’s National Nutrition Survey found that zinc deficiency is high (47 percent) among children under-five years of age and women of child-bearing age. Nearly 42 percent of non-pregnant women, 48...

Grassland-based systems are no longer seen exclusively as livestock production enterprises but as multiple use systems with important consequences for the global environment. They are crucial for the protection of ecosystem goods and services, for tourism and for mitigating climate change. Well-managed grasslands provide important benefits such as increased water...

The report stresses progress in linking research innovations to results in farmers' fields in a number of areas. These research-for-development initiatives are testing technology and policy packages with farmers in their production situations. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa ICARDA leads the wheat component of the regional initiative on Support to...

Partnerships are IFAD’s main mode of operation. The Fund is, in fact, a unique partnership of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries, and member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). IFAD works with developing country governments, poor rural people’s...

This Technical Bulletin is the third in a series produced by the Women's Livelihoods and Dairy Goat Project being implemented in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This IFAD-funded project aims to improve rural livelihoods in marginal, conflict and post-conflict areas of the two countries. There are large numbers of small-scale livestock keepers...

This Technical Bulletin is the first in a series produced by the Women's Livelihoods and Dairy Goat Project being implemented in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This IFAD-funded project aims to improve rural livelihoods in marginal, conflict and post-conflict areas of the two countries. Hygienic milk production, handling and processing are key...

The guidelines resulting from this report are principally directed towards sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the lack of farm power and appropriate machinery is having a deleterious effect on rural livelihoods. The farm power and machinery supply chain includes a range of stakeholders from manufacturers and importers through dealers, hire service...

This issue of Caravan provides examples of ICARDA's work with its partners to help ensure sustainability of livelihoods for the poor in marginal areas.

The Trans-Himalayan region encompasses a number of countries situated in the midland and highland areas of the Himalayas, Karakoram, and in a broad sense also in Hindu Kush and Pamir. The mountains are characterized by a very low level of human development, with full exploitation or overexploitation of the natural...

The thirteen papers presented in this publication review fish stocks and fisheries of mountainous areas of Asia: Himalayas (Bhutan, Nepal, northern states of India within the Himalayas), Western Ghats (India), Karakoram-Hindu Kush (Pakistan, Afghanistan), Pamir (Tajikistan), Tien Shan (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), Altai (Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China), high altitude lakes of Mongolia and...

Smallholder poultry production (i.e. family poultry) is an appropriate system that makes the best use of locally available resources. Family flocks are important providers of eggs and meat as well as being valued in religious and cultural life. There are three production systems for family poultry - free range, backyard...

The International Center for Agricultural Research for the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is located in Syria. Its headquarters are in Tel Hadya, a 948 ha farm 30 km south of Aleppo. ICARDA was founded in 1977 and had its administrative headquarters in Beirut until all offices were moved to Tel Hadya...