The contribution of overgrazing to high-elevation rangeland degradation is a problem across the Himalayan region, and it leads to tensions among users. In the alpine areas of eastern Bhutan, 2 communities of settled and seminomadic herders have been engaged in enduring open conflict over access to a large natural pasture....

Nearly 30 percent of the population are experiencing acute food insecurity, and will likely deteriorate further unless urgent assistance is provided. An estimated 6.3 million people in Sri Lanka are facing moderate to severe acute food insecurity and their situation is expected to worsen if adequate life-saving assistance and livelihood support...

Turdumatova Zhazgul is a proud member of the Ishker KG cooperative, an initiative co-founded by eight remarkable women, herself included. Thanks to her involvement with the cooperative, she had the invaluable opportunity to partake in specialized training programs, knowledge that she expertly applied to enhance her agricultural endeavors. The newfound...

Eighteen individuals representing seven Southeast Asian countries are learning how to develop and advance inclusive, integrated, and innovative public policies for family farming at the headquarters of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Studies and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines on 7-11 November 2022. They are...

Two new sites in Japan - an inland fisheries and associated paddy farming system centred on the country’s largest lake and a traditional fruit-growing area  believed to have been the birthplace of Japanese grape cultivation - have been formally recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). The two sites have been...

Rekhadevi Bohora serves as the secretary of the Kalika Land Right Agriculture Cooperative, an essential role in her community. Inspired by her cooperative's support, she embarked on an entrepreneurial journey by securing a loan. With these funds, she established her own shop, a testament to her determination and the cooperative's...

An article titled Training videos on agroecology – Putting the power of learning in farmers’ hands, which throws spotlight on how Access Agriculture (www.accessagriculture.org) helps scale agroecology across the Global South, has just been published in the June 2022 edition of LEISA India magazine (Issue 24.2).  To read the full article,...

Ce carnet relate l’expérience conduite par le Gret pour accompagner le développement de filières bambou approvisionnées par les forêts villageoises dans la province de Houaphan au Laos. Il montre comment cet accompagnement, qui a duré de 2008 à 2021, a permis aux villageois, acteurs publics et privés de construire collectivement...

Anita Kumari Chaudhary is a dedicated member of the Kalika Land Rights Agriculture Cooperative in Nepal. Through her affiliation with the cooperative, she gained essential tailoring skills and ventured into entrepreneurship with a cooperative-backed loan. Today, she not only manages her thriving business but has also created job opportunities by...

Large-scale tree planting programmes have become politically attractive. They are claimed to be vital in tackling climate change and to provide big social and environmental benefits. This is a study of one such high-profile tree-planting project in Pakistan – the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme. With a reported budget of US$700...

In Asia, inclusive cooperatives and associations play a pivotal role in surmounting the challenges that women farmers encounter. This video showcases the transformative impact of women-led cooperatives and enterprises, shedding light on how they have empowered and enriched the lives of women farmers.

The idea emerged as an outcome of Founder, Arshiya Bose’s doctoral research project. A human geographer, Arshiya completed her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, in the UK, on market incentives for conserving biodiversity – she used certification for coffee as a case study. Her research proposed that there was...

The preservation of forests, sustainable forest management (SFM), forest landscape restoration (FLR) and the need to make the most of precious forest resources are priority issues in the policy and sustainable development agenda of the Asia-Pacific region. Innovation will be key in the coming decades to meet the increasing demand...

Smallholder farmers in India face considerable challenges in terms of market access. The Indian government supports farmer producer companies (FPCs) as a legal-institutional innovation to achieve market benefits for small-scale farmers. FPCs have key agency-enhancing features that distinguish them from India’s traditional cooperative legal structure, but they also demonstrate weaknesses...

When Edy Prasetyo began farming catfish in 2001, he couldn’t have imagined how popular it would become for Indonesian street food culture. Today, grilled-catfish vendors line the streets of Jakarta and other urban centres on the archipelago, catering to city dwellers whose appetite for pecel lele often outruns the supply. But...

In this paper, the authors use conceptual insights from the actor–network theory (ANT) to explore the role of agroecological innovation systems (AeISs) in the reconfiguration of agricultural practices toward sustainability. AeISs are actor networks involving a diversity of individuals (e.g., farmers, traders, experts) and organizations (e.g., cooperatives, rural development agencies,...

As the conservation of marine resources becomes a growing global priority, the concept of marine protected areas (MPAs) is being widely propagated. Since most MPAs are located in coastal areas of great biodiversity, their development has direct relevance and concern to the livelihoods, culture and survival of small-scale and traditional...

Women in the Andean highlands of Cocapata, Bolivia, play a leading role in re-establishing peasant ways of farming, while building innovative connections with urban people. In doing so, they are creating agricultural systems that not only nourish the community and its natural resources but that also support vulnerable populations in...

Mounting evidence points to the fact that climate change is already affecting agriculture and food security, which will therefore make the challenge of ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture even more difficult (FAO 2016). Through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, the 2030 Agenda calls for...

Secondary agriculture offers a viable option of doubling the farmers’ income and also making agriculture competitive.Functional expansion of hitherto traditional agriculture can be a potential way to increase the income of the farmers, particularly those who are small, landless, and dependent on natural resources like forests for their sustenance. Besides...