On 25 June 2021, the European Union (EU) finalised its negotiations for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that is set to come into power on  1 January 2023 and run until 2027. While this CAP is being championed by its creators as a radical new framework for tackling agricultural and...

FAO Liaison Office in New York Newsletter Issue 45 - July 2022

Millions of people rely on nature-rich farming systems for their subsistence and income. The contributions of nature to these systems are varied and key to their sustainability in the long term. Yet, agricultural stakeholders are often unaware or undervalue the relevance of those contributions, which can affect decisions concerning land...

A highly concentrated global food system delinked from local smallholder farms has proved unable to solve our accelerating food crises.  Agroecology is central to building the healthy and resilient local food systems we urgently need in the face of increasing global uncertainty. The COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed most of the world in...

MONGABAY's Charles Mpaka authored an excellent piece on Malawi's 3.3 million smallholder farming families, which comprise the country's economic backbone, yet many are underprivileged and facing food scarcity. Agroecology has proven to be a lifeline for some farmers, enabling them to increase yields and revenue while lowering the usage of...

Legumes are a special group of plant species that includes crops such as peas, beans, and clovers. Legumes are unique because they require no synthetic nitrogen fertiliser to grow and once they are harvested, the nitrogen-rich crop residues can be left in the field as manure. This process further offsets...

A perte de vue, des acacias et des baobabs peuplent la savane poussiéreuse du bassin arachidier, cette large zone d’agriculture pluviale située au centre du Sénégal. Mais à l’approche du village de Tawafal, 120 km à l’est de Dakar, c’est un autre paysage qui attire l’œil du visiteur : six hectares de...

Este material es una invitación para conocer distintas experiencias de mujeres agricultoras agroecológicas del territorio de Sobral (estado brasileño de Ceará). Son historias que expresan el trabajo, la diversidad, la producción, el corage, las estrategias, la creatividad, la resistencia y la resiliencia de mujeres campesinas de la región de Semiarido...

El Centro de Conocimiento y Cooperación Sur-Sur y Triangular del FIDA para América Latina y el Caribe realizó el webinar Prácticas innovadoras de género para la transformación rural: lecciones de Brasil y Uruguay. El webinar presentó la publicación homónima (Descagar publicación), que recoge buenas prácticas de desarrollo rural lideradas por mujeres en el contexto...

 A long-awaited solution for seed suppliers, European organic farmers, and national authorities arrived. The new router database will increase the availability of seed of organic varieties and help increase the transparency of the European organic seed market. EU member states need to establish a national database listing all offered organic seed...

Consumers nearly everywhere in Europe tend to buy more and more healthy food – in particular food that is labelled organic. This development has received an additional push through the Corona pandemic, which made many people realise the importance – and vulnerability – of vitality and good health. But does...

There is growing momentum behind a shift to ‘regenerative’ agriculture in the UK, which can help to mitigate the climate crisis, say leading experts in the sector. “More and more people are seeing other farmers doing it [regenerative farming] and are happier for it,” said John Cherry, who founded Groundswell, the UK’s...

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...

This set of slides introduce the basics of agroecology and the role it can play when building climate resilience in communities. The slides can also form the initial dialogues about how to get started with using agroecology for sustainable production, food security, and environmental protection with partners, farmers, and extension...

The question is though – how often do I get to choose between organic and conventionally grown produce here, in Riga, Latvia? Well, it turns out that if I am very motivated, I can find quite a wide variety of products, even locally produced ones except for example exotic fruits,...

Family farms produce 80 percent of world’s food from 70.80 percent of farm land. By 2050 food grain production needs to grow 330 MT per year. The small family farms are ecological and play a big role in promoting food security and nutritional support. In the state of Kerala, the average...

Este nuevo tiempo global nos exige la reformulación de los viejos paradigmas de la "revolución verde" y del modelo de la agricultura industrial del siglo XX. La fuerte incidencia de los proceso agroindustriales intensivos, desde los agroquímicos sistéticos y la energía involucrada hasta los objetos ultraprocesados que se ofrecen a...

Sandeep Narayan Jamjade is a farmer residing in Jalochi Village, Baramati, Pune. He is 37 years old with a family of 11. He started his farming venture when he was 24.    It took him years of trial and error to adopt various practical solutions leading to ecologically sustainable agricultural practices. Though...

Agroecology is increasingly seen as being able, or even necessary, to transform food systems. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) commissioned this rapid evidence-based review to assess the quality and strength of evidence regarding the impact of agroecological approaches on...

Coconut is the crop of small and marginal farmers which is grown contiguously on their land holdings. Crop management is largely dependent on farmer to farmer extension as conventional extension system seldom looked into the contextual needs, need based delivery mechanisms for improving the efficacy of management in farmers gardens. Black...