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Published as FAO Research and Technology Paper 8, it presents a report of the first six e-mail conferences hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum from March 2000 to May 2001. Each conference was moderated, lasted roughly two months and focused on agricultural biotechnology in developing countries. The first four dealt with the appropriateness of currently available biotechnologies in the crop, fishery, forestry and livestock sectors, while the remaining two dealt with the implications of agricultural biotechnology for hunger and food security and the impact of intellectual property rights.

This platform was launched in 2000 with the goal of providing access to balanced high-quality information and to serve as a neutral platform for interested stakeholders to openly exchange views and experiences on agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries. It has over 3 500 members worldwide and has hosted 19 moderated e-mail conferences on topics related to agricultural biotechnologies in developing countries.

For agricultural extension directors to guide their organizations through this demanding and difficult period, they will need to direct their attention to the main issues and concerns. They must concentrate the work of extension on those activities where it has a comparative advantage. For example, extension should focus its efforts on those knowledge-based technologies that are central to farmers' concerns and that will maintain the natural resource base. In general, these are subject-matter areas that will not be taken up by the private sector. Examples include dissemination of production management technologies that are specific to different crop and livestock systems.

This study examines the extension and training needs of disabled farmers in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The idea for the study arose when extension workers in the region noted the large number of Iran-Iraq War-disabled veterans returning to their villages to continue their earlier activities in the agricultural sector. In speaking to local extensionists, it became apparent that there was no special training for extension workers to assist these farmers with disabilities with their adjustment back to the agricultural sector.

FAO and AGRINATURA strengthened their collaboration by participating together in the panel discussion of the 39th Session of the European Commission on Agriculture. AGRINATURA was invited at the panel discussion within the framework of the partnership with FAO to promote capacity development for Agricultural Innovation System (AIS) in developing countries.

The panel discussion, held in Budapest (Hungary), on 22 September 2015, focused on various aspects of agricultural innovation for family farming, and was attended by Nevena Alexandrova-Stefanova (Agricultural Innovation Systems and Knowledge Sharing Officer at the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia), Botir Dosov (Technical Advisor for CACAARI) and Michael...

A regional workshop on “Institutionalization of Farmer Field Schools at the Local and National Level” was held on 24-27th May 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand, and was attended by 40 participants from 12 Asian countries. Participants included a farmer, FFS facilitators, researchers, extension service providers, academics, government officials, and field practitioners from public and private sectors, NGOs, FAO, and civil society organizations such as the Thai Education Foundation.     

The objectives of the workshop were to share and learn from country experiences on institutionalization of FFS, develop action points for operationalizing FAO’s FFS Guidance Document, and assess needs and interest for establishing regional...

FAO’s Research and Extension Unit is organizing a moderated e-mail conference from 10 to 23 October 2016 entitled “Exploring the contribution of small farms to achieving food security and improved nutrition”. 

The Research and Extension Unit is hosting this e-mail conference as part of its contributions to an EU-funded Horizon 2020 research project on "Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security” (SALSA). In this 4-year project, which began in April 2016, FAO is collaborating with 16 European and African partners to develop a better understanding of the current and potential contribution of small farms and...

The synthesis report of the second e-conference of the EU-funded ‘Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security’ research project (commonly known as SALSA) has been issued today. This report summarizes the main topics and questions discussed during a virtual event that has been well praised by its participants in a survey conducted post-conference. “Participants unanimously agreed that the e-conference was enjoyable, useful and had been an opportunity to learn from each other,” explained Peter Casier, who moderated the email conference together with Fiona Chandler. Both are also the co-authors of the synthesis report. “The results, both from the original...

This FAO special issue presents innovations related to the approaches, tools and methods with case studies and examples of climate risk management and resilience building in agriculture. It contains contributions from 42 authors representing 21 organizations and institutes around the world. 
Edited by Selvaraju Ramasamy, PhD
Head, Research and Extension Unit (OINR)

Agricultural research and extension systems are central to unlock the potential of agricultural innovation and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.