The study was initiated to understand how asset building, combined with appropriate extension services, can enable smallholder farmers to address marketing problems. Interviews were conducted in 2009 with 317 farm households in Kamuli district, Eastern Uganda, who were participants in a sustainable rural livelihoods program, led by an indigenous nongovernmental...

This article examines current adaptation strategies developed by local farmers against climate change effects in Kilombero District. Research questions guided the study include; what are the past and current climatic stresses? What are local farmers’ perception on climate change and response to the adverse climatic stresses? What are institutions and...

L’élevage caprin constitue un pilier important de l’activité économique dans le Nord du Mali. La sécheresse et les abattages massifs ont, cependant, contribué à une baisse significative des effectifs du cheptel.  Pour appuyer la redynamisation de l’élevage caprin dans la région de Kidal, le Programme Intégré de Développement Rural de...

One of the agricultural pathways towards sustainable food and nutrition security is through local production of nutritious food, activity in which smallholder farmers play a crucial role. As food consumers, all rural and urban people in developing countries count heavily on the efficiency of their local smallholder farmers to satisfy their food needs....

Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world, and therefore poverty remains a key challenge in the country.  The great variations in Malawi’s landscape result in wide spatial differences in climate.

Globally ICARDA has the mandate to develop sustainable systems to protect and better use rangelands in the dry lands in cooperation with national research organizations. About 25% of terrestrial surface is used for extensive pastoralism often increasing the risk of desertification, which is fueled by climate change. Unfortunately, by now...

Les agriculteurs et producteurs agricoles d’Afrique de l’Ouest, en collaboration avec la Commission Européenne, le Centre Technique de coopération Agricole (CTA) et SOS Faim, ont participé à une table ronde sur le thème « l’Agriculture durable comme un moyen d’augmenter la résilience: la vision des agriculteurs et producteurs ouest-africains  »....

El cambio climático es uno de los factores que condiciona la estabilidad de los agro-ecosistemas y compromete el medio ambiente, la sociedad, la economía y la cultura de una región. La adaptación al cambio climático ha sido definida como estratégica en la política agropecuaria de Uruguay. El diseño de políticas eficaces...

En octubre de 2011, el Comité de Seguridad Alimentaria Mundial (CSA) solicitó al Grupo de alto nivel de expertos que llevase a cabo “un estudio comparativo de los obstáculos a la inversión de los pequeños productores en la agricultura en diferentes contextos con opciones en materia de políticas para abordar...

The Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) is the approach suggested by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) through the sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) to address the acknowledged shortcoming of African Agricultural Research and Development’s (ARD) failure to achieve impact on the farmer’s field. The...

This video highlights how a pastoralist community in Mandera, Kenya applied knowledge gained in a pastoral field school to improve their livelihood through fodder production.

The Sustainability and Organic Livestock model (SOL-m) is a project (see Concept Note) of the FAO Natural Resources and Management Department that has been commissioned to the Research Institute of Organic Farming (FiBL) in Frick, Switzerland. This summary report presents the preliminary results of the SOL-model. Currently, plausibility checks are...

En años recientes, una confluencia de tendencias, a nivel regional, nacional e internacional, ha llevado al surgimiento de un entorno de políticas que, aunque lejos de ser favorables a la agricultura familiar, brindan más oportunidades para la incidencia de lo que parecía posible hace una década. Se proponen cuatro factores que...

Viability differences in smallholder dairy farming are a result of differences in access to markets and services. It is hypothesized that innovations that improve productivity and market linkages also improve returns and viability. The viability of smallholder dairying in Wedza was characterised by interviewing 52 households using semi-structured questionnaires. Information...

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

Parler d’agroécologie est équivoque et oppose souvent deux camps. Tantôt présentée comme remède à tous les problèmes, tantôt accusée de mystification ou d’archaïsme, l’agroécologie réellement pratiquée dans le monde ne mérite certainement pas cet excès d’honneur ou cette indignité. Tout simplement, elle existe, et ceci depuis longtemps et de manière...

A young farmer from Lithuania talks about her funding support from the Rural Development Programme and what difference this assistance has made to her business.

The area of the City of Zagreb is the only Croatian region (NUTS 3), which is defined as an urban area. Fourteen of the twenty counties are classified as exceptionally rural, and six of them are classified as rural areas. Because of this division, the inhabitants of the rural areas...

Being the most common operational farming model, family farming has ensured the growth of Europe’s agricultural sector for centuries. Today’s ambitious European Union (EU) policy  framework is designed to take account of the different models of agriculture existing in the EU, including the diverse types of family farming. It focuses...

Some may view indigenous communities as being conservative and backwards. However, the Kabekwa in Costa Rica show that such communities can be adaptable and innovative. In response to changing circumstances, this community has been adapting its farming practices constantly, benefiting from it in multiple ways.