Smallholder farmers in semi-arid Africa are in an increasingly vulnerable position due to the direct and indirect effects of climate change, demographic pressure and resource degradation. Conservation agriculture (CA) is promoted as an alternative to restore soil productivity through increased water and nutrient use efficiencies in these regions. However, adoption...

FAO in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and PROCASUR launched an initiative to strengthen women's access to micro financial services. The objective of this activity was also to target practitioners of the rural microfinance industry and assist them to generate effective microfinance programs for both women...

This article traces multiple directions in the evolution of agroecology, from its early emphasis on ecological processes in agricultural systems, to its emergence as a multidimensional approach focusing on broader agro-food systems. This review is timely, as agroecology is being increasingly applied within a diversity of scientific-, policy-, and farmer-based...

Agroecology today has a strong focus on bringing sustainability to food, feed, and fiber production. But there is also a larger focus on the social, economic, and political “drivers” that move food systems beyond the conditions that have created un-sustainability in modern industrial agriculture. With its ecosystem foundation, the science...

Munira Shemsudin, Gender & HIV/AIDS Programme Officer for Self Help Africa in Ethiopia, talks about the power of investing in women farmers.

In the face of recurrent global food crises, institutions of the corporate food regime propose a new Green Revolution coupled with a continuation of neoliberal economic policies. Because these are causes of the crises to begin with, this approach can worsen rather than end hunger. Building a countermovement depends in...

Alice Kachere, a smallholder farmer from Malawi, talks about the challenges she faces as well as the training she has benefited from.

The World Bank SALMA project would contribute to the economic infrastructure area of engagement outlined in the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for FY11-14 and is aligned with the lessons learned in the FY08-09 Interim Strategy Note. Three aspects of economic infrastructure are addressed: agriculture, environment, and transportation. The project is...

Receta japonesa para elaborar un concentrado orgánico para aves ponedoras. En cada país se puede adaptar dicha receta con sustitutos locales. 

The Lithuanian Goat Breeders Association, headed by the farmer Andžela Dalia Ėmužytė, has already prepared more than one project under the action area “National Rural Network” of the 2007–2013 Lithuanian Rural Development Programme measure “Technical Assistance”. Goat milk cheeses, produced at the farm of the farmer A.D. Ėmužytė, have become...

This Special Issue on Diversified Farming Systems is motivated by a desire to understand how agriculture designed according to whole systems, agroecological principles can contribute to creating a more sustainable, socially just, and secure global food system. We first define Diversified Farming Systems (DFS) as farming practices and landscapes that...

La tendencia a la adopción de tecnologías de punta por parte de los productores agropecuarios de Argentina, ha favorecido procesos relacionados con la revolución verde y más recientemente la revolución biotecnológica expresada por la liberación de los OGM en plantas y sus tecnologías de manejo asociadas. Consecuentemente, las empresas de mayor...

The Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) initiative was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2002 with the aim of establishing the basis for the global recognition, dynamic conservation and adaptive management of outstanding traditional agricultural systems and their associated landscapes, biodiversity, knowledge...

Happy Shongwe, a smallholder farmer from Swaziland, talks about her successful business of growing and selling legume seeds.

Kuttanad is a delta region of about 900 sq. km situated in the west coast of Kerala State, India. The area is a larger mosaic of fragmented landscape patches and varied ecosystems such as coastal backwaters, rivers, vast stretches of paddy fields, marshes, ponds, garden lands, edges, corridors and   remarkably networked water ways.  The Kuttanad Below Sea-level...

Rural social movements have in recent years adopted agroecology and diversified farming systems as part of their discourse and practice. Here, we situate this phenomenon in the evolving context of rural spaces that are increasingly disputed between agribusiness, together with other corporate land-grabbers, and peasants and their organizations and movements....

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

Los agricultores suelen ser conscientes de la enorme diversidad de especies de insectos en sus campos, y de las funciones que estos cumplen como parte de un ecosistema. La agricultura tiene gran influencia en el equilibrio de la población de insectos. Sin embargo, en todo el mundo, las evidencias muestran...

China has a five-thousand-year history of agricultural civilization. Diversified natural and cultural features across regions have led to a variety of agricultural heritage systems which have evolved from the co-adaptation of the local community and its environment. However, for a long period, their ecological rationality and potential economic benefits have...

Las últimas crisis internacionales –cuyos ejes principales e interrelacionados fueron el cambio climático, la producción de alimentos, la escasez de fuentes de energía y la explosión de la burbuja inmobiliaria en Estados Unidos–, han obligado a redirigir la mirada hacia los elementos más básicos de la producción y la reproducción...