News

Oct 2012 - In collaboration with ‘the initiative prospective agricole et et rurale’ (IPAR) located in Dakar, Senegal, FAO is organizing a consultation workshop on Market-oriented Agricultural Advisory services (MOAAS) from 22 to 24 October 2012 in Dakar, Senegal which will involve farmer organizations, government representatives with a focus on MOAAS. Agricultural extension nowadays, ...read more

Oct 2012 - In this Episode of Hungry Planet - a FAO, IFAD and WFP production - three reports on agricultural cooperatives are presented from Guatemala, Afghanistan and Southern Niger. Particularly in Niger’s project (starting from 7.05 min), for which OEKR is Leader Technical Unit, agricultural cooperatives gain access to better seeds and better ...read more

Oct 2012 - A revamped FAO "Glossary of Biotechnology for Food and Agriculture" was recently relaunched in a new web version. Updated with over 3,000 terms and acronyms used regularly in agricultural biotechnology research, the glossary provides a reference point for experts and students worldwide through an innovative online collaboration tool. Improvements made ...read more

Oct 2012 - To improve farmers livelihoods, there is a critical need for good knowledge of the business aspects of running their farm and of how to market their products. To achieve this may require a re-orientation of extension services that do not focus on production but instead focus on farm management marketing ...read more

Sep 2012 - The Research and Extension Branch and the FAO Sub-regional office for Southern Africa presented a film on the Swaziland Agricultural Development Program (SADP). The short film, entitled "It's all about smallholders" was followed by presentations and discussions about SADP. SADP was established in 2009 to revitalize agriculture and contribute to the ...read more

Jul 2012 - With the objective to raise awareness on essential principles for Market Oriented Agricultural Advisory Services (MOAAS), FAO with the support of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) is organizing a MOOAS Workshop for the Latin America region to be held in Santa Cruz (Bolivia) next October. Its aim is ...read more

Jun 2012 - The FAO email conference "Agricultural Innovation Systems and Family Farming" is approaching the halfway point, and thus far it has been an overwhelming success. About 550 users have subscribed to the conference with 104 contributions from 67 people. Messages have come from 33 different countries, over 80% of which have ...read more

Jun 2012 - Genetic resources for food and agriculture are vital for all humankind. The Government of Bolivia the Italian Development Cooperation and FAO, have joined efforts to strengthen national policies and public management system of genetic resources. The book "Lo que la tierra nos da" presents the enormous variety of genetic resources ...read more

May 2012 - Development and research actors must give more critical attention to providing solutions to the smallholder agriculture problems. This is particularly true for the challenges faced by many of the 2.5 billion people living in the world's dry areas, which comprise 40% of the earth's surface. A range of practical solutions ...read more

Jan 2009 - FAO moderated e-mail conference entitled "The role of agricultural biotechnologies for production of bioenergy in developing countries" took place from 10 November to 14 December 2008. Major topics of discussion included applications of biotechnologies in jatropha; the potential benefits for small-scale farmers of applying biotechnologies for bioenergy production; biogas production ...read more