The shepherding of livestock on open pastures is an essential marker of pastoralist management. In modern Europe this practice still persists in various truncated forms. In many parts of the world, government policies undervalue or actively discourage pastoralism, especially mobile pastoralism. Europe is an exception to this trend. Backed by...

Smallholder farmers generally face many challenges. However, women smallholders face multiple constraints beyond those of men farmers. Women tend to be invisible to policy makers because they are not seen as ‘productive’ farmers. They often are expected to provide unpaid farm work, and bear a disproportionate burden of care and...

The document presents a roadmap for developing commercially sustainable quality seed in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It focuses on directing investments in five key areas along the seed potato value chains. The objectives of this strategic roadmap are to improve productivity, raise incomes of smallholder farmers, enhance food...

Este estudio fue parte de una investigación realizada por FLACSO-Costa Rica, para el Instituto de Desarrollo Agrario (IDA) y que fue realizado a lo largo del año 2010, donde se combinaron métodos cuantitativos con métodos cualitativos, con el fin de caracterizar la situación de los asentamientos enmarcados en las gestiones...

On television screens and newspaper front pages around the world, the stories out of Africa are often filled with doom and gloom. And while the reality of life for many Africans is often difficult, there are success stories to share and inspire others. This 13-part television series, produced in cooperation...

The current evolution of the sheep and goat sectors in the Mediterranean region, with a constant decrease in economic profitability, a high incertitude on the generational transfer of farms, and the environmental concerns for both the consequences of abandonment of the activity in some areas and the increase of the...

This entry discusses different methods of bee hive colonization. It explains how a baited and installed hive can be self-colonized by a bee swarm. For cases where self-colonization is unsuccessful, it outlines three different methods to capture a swarm: two alternative ways of catching a swarm (with a bag/box or...

Filmed in Zimbabwe and the United Republic of Tanzania, the video highlights the importance of rural men's and women's local knowledge to their livelihoods.

This article aims to analyze the agricultural activities of family farmers and its impact on the environment in Palmares II Settlement, located in the municipality of Parauapebas, PA, and discuss the potential for local development. The economic and ecological sustainability of family farms can be achieved through the empowerment of...

This course provides an overview of the IPC approach (version 1.1) and its components. A new 2.0 version of the IPC tools is now being used and has replaced the previous version. This course is still available for reference and for those interested in learning more about the IPC and...

A beekeeper with a colonized hive must remember that the success in keeping bees depends on the exercise of his knowledge of colony organization. This entry focuses on practices to examine and control the colony. The first part gives detailed advice on how to inspect a hive and its colony...

This report takes seven concrete examples of policy interventions which highlight good practice for focusing on women, and combines this with wider evidence to draw out key lessons for delivering stronger outcomes for women smallholder farmers. It then looks at the current role that different institutions and donors are playing...

I n the recently completed CFC/FAO Organic Aquaculture Project, INFOFISH helped fish farmers in the Asia-Pacific region adapt to the new market niche for organic aquaculture products.

The three case studies presented in this report represent successful approaches, both in terms of the techniques they have applied, and because of the active involvement of farmers’ organizations in changing the policies needed to ensure their success. Agroecological systems, which start from the interplay between the natural environment and...

This study is a guide for those looking to improve national wildlife laws with a view to ensuring environmental sustainability and strengthening the role of disadvantaged people and increasing their participation in the sharing of benefits. In doing so, this study concentrates on legal tools for the empowerment of local...

In response to the global trends that undermine family agriculture and traditional agricultural systems, in 2002, during the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD, Johannesburg, South Africa), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations launched a Global Partnership Initiative on conservation and adaptive management of “Globally Important...

This dossier is intended as a tool. It is the result of discussions within the European Farmer Seeds Network which are still ongoing and still subject to change. Like farmer varieties, this dossier is neither homogeneous nor stable. It provides a diverse array of information whose structure might help the...

Over the centuries, generations of farmers, forest peoples and herders have developed complex, diverse natural resources and locally adapted agricultural and forestry management systems to create and maintain specific, remarkable landscapes and agricultural systems that provide livelihoods, food security, conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. Building on local knowledge and...

In the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) region organic agriculture could play a catalyst role in green economy transformation by re-vitalizing the farm and food sector and creating employment that provides better returns on per unit of  labor input all along the value chain. It could increase income...

The present ability or otherwise of Africa to cope with climate change and improve its agricultural production depends on the environment and natural resources base of the continent, on the impacts of its past and on the nature of its present interactions with the outside world. Africa is a large...