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Salzburg.- Austria, marked a significant milestone as it celebrated the formal recognition of Traditional Hay Milk Farming in the Austrian Alpine Arc as a FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). The event, attended by 800 guests, mainly farmers from the region, included the participation of Salzburg Governor, Wilfried Haslauer, and GIAHS Coordinator, Endo Yoshihide, representing the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. "The designation of hay milk farming...

Through the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) programme, FAO helps preserve the agricultural heritage that safeguards the biodiversity essential to our environment while providing livelihoods for rural communities.

For 20 years, FAO has recognised sites around the world that combine remarkable landscapes with traditional knowledge of resilient and sustainable management of land and natural resources.

In the mountainous Tokushima region of Japan, farmers have grown local varieties of millet, vegetables and other crops for more than 400 years. But in recent times, the cultivation of millets, a highly nutritious crop, almost died out. Only the love of a farmer in Nishi-Awa helped saved a local variety of finger millet from vanishing completely.