While India was home to more than 100,000 rice varieties only 50 years ago, today more than 80% of the area dedicated to grow rice is planted with hybrid varities. Thanks to the efforts of about 1,400 farmers in the Koraput region (Odisha state), traditional varieties of "desi dhaan", as they...

El Foro Taller: “Innovaciones Sociales para la Agricultura Familiar” busca promover un espacio teórico – práctico con el compartir de las experiencias de diferentes organizaciones agrarias de la Agricultura Familiar junto a universidades, centros de investigación, redes de sustentabilidad y comunidades sociales del país en procesos como Agroecología, Bio-construcción, Circuitos...

Seventy percent of food worldwide is produced by smallholders, including family farms and private households. Connecting those small producers to processing facilities and markets can be a challenge but it is possible, as an international conference in Astana last week made clear. In Kazakhstan, the country’s 1.6 million private households and...

The potential contribution of organic farming to the public goods, ‘Nature and Biodiversity’, ‘Environment’, ‘Energy and Climate’, ‘Human Health and Welfare’ and ‘Animal Health and Welfare’ in Denmark is guided and partly secured by the principles and specific requirements of the EU Organic Regulation. However, other factors, such as the...

Urgenci was present at the “Oxford Real Farming Conference” (ORFC) in Britain, a conference that started as a small alternative conference to the “Oxford Farming Conference” (supported in 2017 by Bayer, BASF and others) but that now has overtaken the conventional farming conference in both the number of delegates and...

A sustainable and holistic approach to agriculture and the environment is being promoted by FAO at this week’s global climate change event in Bonn, Germany. Together with the governments of Hungary and France, and with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), FAO is presenting “agroecology” as a way to produce...

Learning Journey on Local Solidarity Partnerships for Agroecology between producers and consumers in Lebanon, November 22-25, 2017. Urgenci, the international network of Local Solidarity Partnerships for Agroecology between producers and consumers (LSPA) and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Food and Agriculture Organization of...

Tajikistan’s roughly 3.8 million hectares of pasture – almost 29 percent of its total land area – feed the country’s meat-producing livestock. But these natural resources, particularly year-round pastures near villages, are being depleted and degraded. Since 2013, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have been working with...

The burning Autumn sun is rolling on the cretes of Anatolia. On the arid outskirts of the village of Tahtacıörencik, the hens of the Kır Çocukları eco-project are witnessing curious activities. A group of about 40 visitors, including 12 foreigners, is invading the poultry breeding farm.  Perched on the fence,...

Rural development has an important role to play in the sustainable development of Georgia. Evidence from the experience of European Rural Development Programmes confirms the role that rural development can play in terms of increasing the welfare of rural populations and reducing the economic imbalance between rural and urban areas....

This paper uses a political ecology approach to historically situate rural people’s experiences with a changing climate. Using the concept of the co-production of knowledge, we examine how Malawian smallholder farmers learn, perceive, share and apply knowledge about a changing climate, and what sources they draw on for agroecological methods...

O cacau é o principal produto agrícola do sul da Bahia e é muito adequado à agricultura familiar. Dos 15.256 produtores assistidos pela Comissão Executiva no ano passado, 12.432 foram agricultores familiares, atingindo mais de 80% do total. “É um cultivo que ainda dependente muito de mão de obra, necessitando...

Kazakhstan continued its pursuit of organic agriculture production, certification and marketing this week as it welcomed a group of FAO experts to Astana. FAO investment support officer Kairat Nazhmidenov, senior natural resources officer and key FAO expert in organic Nadia Scialabba, and organic legislation expert and legal consultant Raushan Zhazykbayeva were...

Dentro de la estrategia de medio ambiente de la región de Antofagasta se ha enfocado en el ser humano de manera integrada y no aislada en su relación con los recursos naturales, como el agua, el viento, el suelo, etc. Es así que se valora al hombre y mujer de campo en...

With consumer demand for organic foods on the rise, FAO is working with Central Asian countries to develop their capacities for organic agriculture. A three-day international conference on the topic opens here today, with leading experts and other players taking part. Organized by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources in...

Viticulture, the science of growing grapes, dates back as far as 8 000 years in Armenia. The country has a favourable setting for grape production and it is a lucrative business even today. But not paying enough attention to preserving genetic resources and maintaining healthy vines could jeopardize future good prospects...

IPM was first proposed in 1957, as a concept that promoted biological control, good agronomic practices and the use of other means to control pests besides chemical pesticides. IPM is location specific, based on local field ecology and socio-economic conditions. IPM in the Iranian programme meant more than just “pest...

Faced with a financial hole of €853 million for organic and mountain areas farming, France’s Agriculture Minister Stéphane Travert decided to review the allocation of funds under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period 2018-2020. According to the EU Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM EU), consumers have more than...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO) is organizing an International Conference on development of organic agriculture in Central Asia during 22-24 August 2017. The theoretical sessions of the Conference will be...

Imaginar a agricultura inserida em florestas pode ser algo difícil para algumas pessoas. Afinal, as ações do homem colocaram-nas em lados opostos na maior parte das vezes. Desde a colonização do Brasil, o desmatamento para a produção agrícola ou pecuária é comum. No Dia Internacional das Florestas e da Árvore,...