This special issue of Farming Matters magazine has explored the ways in which access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources can work for family farmers. On one hand it presents cases that demonstrate the limited extent to which family farmers have been able to benefit from the ‘formal’ ABS...

Las Kuatras Marias farm is located in San Narcisso village, near Victoria City in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, where rice monoculture is the main source of income for family farmers in the area. Applying an extensive knowledge of indigenous and organic practices, the farm is strategically structured in distinct components that...

The E-agriculture strategy guide is an attempt to provide countries with a framework to develop their national e-agriculture strategies. E-agriculture strategies will help to rationalize both financial and human resources, and address ICT opportunities for the agricultural sector in a more holistic and efficient manner. This will help improve the...

Descripción y análisis de dos hechos que para el autor, resultan muy relevantes para el agro en Colombia: el Paro Nacional Agrario, Campesino, Étnico y Popular que se realizó entre el 30 de mayo y el 12 de junio de 2016 y la firma del acuerdo sobre cese al fuego...

The "La Aurora" farm is located 400 km southeast of Buenos Aires, within an area dedicated to mixed agricultural and livestock production. The combined effect of an increased use of agro-chemicals and the area under monocrops was the endangerment or the region's natural resources. From 1997, La Aurora started to use...

Burkina Faso ranks as the sixth poorest country in the world according to the 2015 UN Human Development Report. Recent studies estimate that 46.4% of the population in the Eastern Region lives below the poverty line. These people are caught in a vicious cycle of degrading natural resources, declining soil...

De acuerdo al Programa de Gobierno y los Lineamientos Estratégicos Institucionales 2014-2018, a nivel nacional se trabajó el área de Medio Ambiente, en donde la Región de Antofagasta ha sido la primera en recoger el guante, desarrollando así un Seminario de Agroecología, impulsando un nuevo camino en la mirada agroambiental....

Adapting to climate change and reducing the risk of disaster are topics of intense interest for anyone involved in agriculture in Serbia. In cooperation with the European Union, Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and local self-governments, FAO ran two training workshops on these issues earlier this month. Participants in...

Rice and ducks have been ‘good friends’ of farmers in the Mekong Delta for a long time. Traditionally, farmers in the Mekong Delta planted rice paddies and raised ducks by releasing them into the paddy fields after the harvest to eat residues. A Japanese farmer, Mr. Takao Furuno, took this traditional...

Con motivo de las actividades y debates promovidos por el Gobierno Federal en el Mes de la Mujer, el MDA llevó a cabo un mini documental. El video muestra el resultado de las políticas públicas para las mujeres rurales. En el interior del Río Grande del Norte, por ejemplo, los...

Convened by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Dutch development organisation Hivos, and led from Bolivia, the network set out to generate and integrate its own knowledge on smallholders and globalisation. Their work has also been complemented by a series of debates in Europe on some of the core...

Access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources is a crucial but very complex, political and legalistic matter. Does the formal system work for family farmers? As we see in this special issue of Farming Matters, co-produced with Bioversity International, it poses many challenges. At the same time, farmers around...

Rapid population growth, increasingly complex economies and novel industrial uses of agricultural products call for further intensification of agriculture, particularly in the tropics. How to achieve sustainable intensification of food production systems in tropical regions that are challenged by ongoing climate change, loss of natural resources and biodiversity is a...

Data from October 2016. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database. Family farms dominate the structure of EU agriculture in terms of their numbers, their contribution to agricultural employment and, to a lesser degree, the area of land that they cultivate. There were 10.8 million farms in the...

En América Latina y El Caribe, la Agroecología ha sido desde hace décadas una forma de vida de muchos agricultores, campesinos, pescadores artesanales, pastores, recolectores, pueblos indígenas, afrodescendientes y pueblos y comunidades tradicionales. La agroecología ha sido promocionada y reivindicada por los movimientos sociales como un modelo de agricultura armónica...

All around the world there are millions of farmers who continue to farm and refuse to turn their land and resources into just another money making industry. They continue to fight for their autonomy and their fundamental right to grow clean and nutritious food for their local communities. Gerald Miles is...

Malawi is a small country located in southern Africa with only 119,000 km2 for a population of about 16.7 million people. With agriculture as the mainstay of the economy, Malawi’s high population density of 140 people/km2 requires that agricultural productivity and other ecosystem services must be optimized. As part of...

OCLA es una organización de carácter regional, que interactúa y potencia actividades conjuntas con otras Sociedades y organizaciones involucradas en la promoción de la agroecología.  SOCLA promueve la creación de capítulos nacionales utilizando el modelo de la ya existente Sociedad Brasileira de Agroecología, de manera que en cada país se...

"Este número se enfoca principalmente en la importancia de las plantas leguminosas, tanto en su valor como alimento humano y animal, como en su contribución a la conservación y recuperación de los suelos agrícolas. Varios de los artículos tratan sobre experiencias donde las semillas comestibles de leguminosas, las legumbres, combinadas...

Modern dairy plants buy fresh milk from local farmers and herders to make into many different products. The company pays a fair price, but requires strict hygiene: they only buy milk that is clean and fresh.