A staggering 70% of the food we consume worldwide is produced by smallholders. Peasant and indigenous communities, who produce a great deal of this food, have been developing and saving seed for millennia—from Guatemala through Senegal to Nepal. However, today seeds are under threat everywhere. Laws are increasingly limiting what...

Rural women of all ages spend much of their day engaged in domestic chores, including collecting water and firewood, processing and preparing food, travelling and transporting, and caregiving. These tasks are unpaid and restrict a woman’s time and mobility. Moreover, the drudgery can cause poor health and nutrition for a...

Até pouco tempo, a renda do Luiz Carlos saía toda da plantação de tabaco. Por conta da cultura em produzir o fumo, o agricultor não enxergava outras oportunidades. Mas tudo mudou depois de um trabalho forte de Ater na região, que mostrou que seria possível diversificar a produção. Mesmo ainda...

The McKnight Foundation, a family foundation based in Minnesota, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Its teams work in a diverse range of areas toward a shared mission of improving lives.

O Anuário Brasileiro da Agricultura Familiar 2016 é uma publicação que fornece informações sobre políticas públicas e tecnologias voltadas à área rural com o objetivo de auxiliar técnicos e produtores.  Em sua quinta edição, foram incluídas duas ações em agroecologia desenvolvidas pela Embrapa Meio Ambiente (Jaguariúna, SP). Sistema agroflorestal em assentamento paulista: Aborda a...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have become a widely used tool for marine conservation and fisheries management. In coastal areas, it has become clear that the success of MPAs, and the achievement of sustainable fishery production, requires a combination of effective management and conservation frameworks, maintenance of decent fisheries livelihoods, and...

Although relatively new, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is attracting increasing interest and attention in various parts of the world including in Central Asia. FAO and other partners have a number of on-going and forthcoming projects which deal with different aspects of the CSA approach. Given the importance of conceiving and...

The article describes a community based seed enterprise for rice seeds, set up as part of a project in the Kurigram region of Bangladesh. The enterprise generates income for the seed growers, processors and traders, but the seed is also cheaper than other seed on the market because of the...

The role of intra-regional trade in managing food price risks in Africa is being discussed in various fora. In response to high food prices, many countries adopted ad-hoc measures to restrict and/or prohibit trade with neighbouring countries. With policy makers, civil society organizations, development partners and other stakeholders as target...

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...

Fruit flies inject their eggs in fruit. A single fruit fly can lay hundreds of eggs, which turn into white worms that eat the inside of fruit. If no action is taken, fruit flies quickly increase in numbers and can destroy your entire crop. Always combine different methods: • Place...

The status of women's land rights in Zimbabwe is the result of various legal interventions and historical, social, economic, demographic and climatic processes within and outside the country. The interventions produced diverse tenure types, cultural practices and resistance that mediate the way in which the processes impact on the specific...

Agricultores familiares e extensionistas de todo o país vão ter mais estrutura e condições para o desenvolvimento sustentável no campo. O Governo Federal, por meio da Secretaria Especial de Agricultura Familiar e do Desenvolvimento Agrário (Sead), vai destinar R$ 52 milhões para fortalecer o serviço de Assistência Técnica e Extensão...

The document explains how organic agriculture supports and enhances ecologically sound systems of food production that can achieve food security.

El Foro Latinoamericano sobre Desarrollo Territorial, Innovación y Comunicación Rural fue una iniciativa de carácter regional liderada por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO) y organizada en colaboración con la Empresa Brasileña de Investigación Agropecuaria (Embrapa), el Ministerio de Desarrollo Agrario (MDA) y...

This paper aims to test this hypothesis and to contribute to better understanding of strategies to revitalize the agricultural extension system in Malawi. Specifically, it examines the interplay between the fertilizer subsidy and access to extension services, and their impact on farm productivity and food security in Malawi. Results show that...

Esta edición del documento “Perspectivas de la agricultura y del desarrollo rural en las Américas (2015-2016)” se divide, de conformidad con la estructura de los cinco informes anteriores, en los siguientes cuatro capítulos: Capítulo I: Contexto macroeconómico: Se analizan la evolución y las perspectivas de los mercados financieros y macroeconómicos,...

In Egypt, an agro-industrial company, in association with a non-governmental organization, began setting up milk collection centres within producers’ organizations in 2011. The project was very active in the Beni Suef Governorate. This article analysesthe milkshed evolution overthe past 50 years and the projectimpact. Using interviews and historical data, a...

One fruit fly can lay a few hundred eggs during her life. Fruit flies puncture the skin of fruit to lay their eggs, which cause the fruit to drop prematurely and rot. The worms that hatch from these eggs leave the spoilt fruit after one week and crawl into the...

The current AU policy environment supports efforts by African countries to address malnutrition and can be a rallying point for different interventions at the continental, REC, and country levels. In addition, the accountability processes incorporated into the various declarations create opportunities for monitoring nutrition progress across the continent. The chapters...