Farmers have traditionally maintained local seeds, and through them biodiversity, using indigenous knowledge passed through generations. Farmers select, plant, harvest, clean, and store seeds to feed their families today and in the future. They also exchange and share seeds with their neighbors, friends, and relatives. However, these traditional practices are...

With the intensification of the crisis, food insecurity and poverty have drastically increased across all of Syria. At the same time, the crisis continues to affect the national economic and social balance in countries neighbouring Syria. The massive influx of refugees is exerting unprecedented pressure on host countries and communities, which...

América Latina y el Caribe constituye un amplio muestrario de casos exitosos y lecciones aprendidas en tal sentido, y es que ha sabido introducir una visión integradora en su determinación por concebir a la agricultura familiar como un ente transformador y no como un sujeto de beneficencia. En los últimos años...

Over a period of 5 months, the Food Heritage Foundation (FHF) team worked on rehabilitating and equipping the foundation’s kitchen at Zico House – Spears, partnering with small producers in rural areas in order to secure a regular supply of high-quality raw ingredients to the kitchen and contacting women cooks...

Agriculture is an engine of growth for rural communities, particularly in the developing world. It has also proven to be an especially viable tool for women to lift themselves out of poverty. Women in developing countries rely heavily on the income they earn from agriculture-related activities to provide for their...

Dans le cadre du renforcement de la résilience à travers l’amélioration des moyens d’existence des communautés pastorales, la FAO met en œuvre, depuis 2014, une activité de production locale et d’utilisation de Blocs Multi-nutritionnels (BMNs) dans ses zones d’intervention notamment dans les Wilayas du Trarza, Brakna, Gorgol et Assaba. Dans...

Just one year ago, world leaders committed to working towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) designed to change the course of the 21st century and address challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, education, etc. All these objectives are inextricably linked, and the success of one often depends on...

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....

Cette année le 8 mars a eu un accent particulier. Et cela pour deux raisons. La première, les autorités ont placé la commémoration sous le thème «Entrepreneuriat agricole des femmes : obstacles, défis et perspectives». Elles sont allées plus loin que le thème de la journée internationale qui est «Planète 50-50 d’ici 2030 :...

New agreement aims to ensure capacity development, farmers’ access to productive resources, knowledge exchange. India's Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and FAO are strengthening their collaboration to boost rural development and reduce poverty in Asia and Africa via local initiatives focused on empowering rural women and youth.

En el marco de la campaña Mujeres Rurales entrevistamos a Marisa Elizabeth Boschetti, responsable del área de la Mujer en la Confederación de Productores Familiares del Mercosur (COPROFAM) y Coordinadora Nacional de Lechería de FAA (Federación Agraria Argentina). Nacida y residente en Alicia, esta agricultora argentina de 44 años hace mil malabares para...

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...

Despite its enormous contribution to food security and to rural economy, small-scale agriculture faces a number of intertwined constraints that are impeding its productivity, its profitability and its contribution to economic growth. These include a limited access to productive assets (land, water and capital), poor linkages to markets and the...

The overall objective of the ER+ component is to assist ultra-poor women and their families in disaster-prone areas of Bangladesh in lifting themselves above the lower poverty line toward greater food security. To achieve the objective, a third “promotional” year has been introduced to ER, during which women—either ER laborers/trainees...

Mrs Tea Sarim is one of the participating farmers in a European Union funded multi-country (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand) project called "Sustaining and Enhancing the Momentum for Innovation and Learning around the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the Lower Mekong River Basin" (http://www.sri-lmb.ait.asia/). Mrs Sarim is from...

Since 1950s, Sudan has been intermittently devastated by civil wars and, in 2011, has split into two different nations, the Republic of Sudan (subject of the analysis) and the Republic of the South Sudan. Nowadays, almost half of the population of the Republic of Sudan is at or below the...

In the framework of the 33th FAO's Regional Conference for the Near East, this  discussion paper is dedicated to small-scale agriculture.  The majority of agricultural activities in the NENA region involves small-holders (small-scale farmers, pastoralists, forest keepers, fishers and aquaculture farmers) who produce the bulk of fresh food supply. The paper analyses the...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has been on the front line of resilience measurement since 2008. Together with other key partners, FAO has been pioneering resilience measurement and analysis with respect to food insecurity through the Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) (FAO, 2015) model....

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...

Drylands represent 40% of the Earth's surface, produce 44% of the world’s food and are home to 80% of the world’s poor. Eighty per cent of Kenya comprises arid or semi-arid lands. Rainfall occurs in just one or two short, intense seasons. Because the land is so dry, when rain...