Welcome to the fourth edition of our newsletter in 2020 which, as usual, provides information about our work in Myanmar. Since the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in late August, the government has set more protective measures in force in almost every state and region. This reaches you therefore as the...

When 27-year old Neeraj Kumar heard about the Access Agriculture “Young Entrepreneur Challenge Fund 2019” announcement, he was excited to learn that winners would receive a Digisoft portable smart projector. Neeraj is co-founder of Khetee, an NGO based in Durdih village in Bihar, a state in eastern India. What impressed him most...

the Andhra Pradesh Community managed Natural Farming (AP-CNF), formerly known as AP ZBNF, programme in India is a breath of fresh air. As AP-CNF says on its website, the programme “is based on the latest scientific discoveries in Agriculture, and, at the same time it is rooted in Indian tradition.” AP-CNF is...

Supply chains have been disrupted, demand has dropped for certain foods, resulting in damage to nutrition, health and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people in this, the world’s most populous region.    In response, 46 Member Nations, along with private sector and civil society organizations, will discuss a way forward...

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a global health crisis, and the long-term impact of the pan­demic is predicted to reach far beyond today. In a lower-middle-income country with upward economic growth, such as Bangladesh, it is essential first to understand the present situation in order to create a proper recovery...

This is the report of the Seventh Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (APFIC) Regional Consultative Forum Meeting (RCFM) on Sustainable Development for Resilient Blue Growth of Fisheries and Aquaculture. The meeting was convened in Cebu, Philippines from 7 May to 9 May 2018 at the Bai Hotel and was attended by 80...

ASEAN is one of the most productive agricultural baskets in the world. In 2012, the region produced 129 million tons of rice, 40 million tons of corn, 171 million tons of sugarcane, 1.44 million tons of soybean, and 70.34 million tons of cassava. ASEAN is likely to increase exports to...

he Samoa Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), University of South Pacific (USP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) are partnering to develop weather advisories aimed at helping farmers better plan their crop production. A meeting to discuss moving...

Did you know that this squash I am holding has more vitamin A than golden rice?” - Angelita Mangangan, an organic farmer from the Philippines, for #IGrowYourFood

Every year, FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific celebrates the importance of World Food Day. This year, given the COVID-19 global pandemic and the disruptions it has caused to livelihoods and food security, our celebrations are muted, yet within this context, today’s World Food Day itself has become...

In 2009, the Laos government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation entered into a bilateral agreement for the implementation of "The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI)" in upland Laos. The initiative sought to conserve, enhance, manage, and sustainably utilize the biological diversity found in upland farming landscapes to improve the...

Asia-Pacific’s smallholder family farmers produce most of the world’s food, yet they are facing a disproportionate impact on their livelihoods and food security due to the present coronavirus pandemic, a collaboration of FAO and advocacy groups warned today. The COVID-19 impact on the region’s rural communities, and particularly those in developing...

Root starch production is a long-established industry that has seen little development in recent years. In developing countries it has been estimated that five million tonnes of starch are produced annually in developing countries, half of which is produced from cassava representing a major market for small-scale root crop growers....

Highest grades of cassava starch are processed from freshly extracted starch. In many cassava processing factories, extracted starch is stored in tanks under wet conditions during the peak harvesting period (two to five months). Long-term storage of cassava starch under wet conditions results in adverse quality changes which reduce the...

YANGON, MYANMAR – “Hitting two birds with one stone” is how we can describe this initiative of the AFFM, the AFOSP-APFP partner farmers’ organization in Myanmar, to help their members during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. AFFM, one of the sectorial affiliates of CTUM, has more than 528 Basic Level Unions...

Aquatic animals that can be harvested sustainably from a farmer managed system without regular stocking, are referred to as Self Recruiting Species (SRS). A range of indigenous and introduced fish species, as well as molluscs, crustacea, and amphibians are inevitably present in many rural aquaculture systems, even where attempts have...

The Panzarawani Community Radio Station, named after the river Panjhra in Dhule district of Maharashtra in Western India, is bringing about a welcome change to marginalised indigenous ethnic communities by broadcasting information on good agricultural practices. Panzarawani reaches around 72,000 listeners in 90 villages.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in 2016 as an alternative to chemical-based and capital intensive agriculture through its implementing agency Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS). The main objective of the ZBNF is to make agriculture economically viable, agrarian livelihoods profitable, thereby reducing agrarian distress through cost reduction and...

In Bangladesh, rice, and variations in its yield, is the key staple crop. It is critical to the livelihoods of that part of the population depending on agriculture. Transplanted aman (t. aman) is the second rice crop grown in the wet kharif II season, between July and November. However it...

This method produces small, whole planting setts, each weighing 200 g to 800 g, from minisetts as small as 25 g. The small, whole tuber setts produced by minisett rapid multiplication are excellent planting material for farmers and researchers. Each sett has a head, which means that sprouting is early,...