Thirty women groups attached to the Koinadugu Women Vegetable Farmers’ Cooperative benefited from high quality vegetable seeds of different varieties with support from FAO to enhance their production and depleted income.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the African Union Commission (AUC) on the implementation of the Regional Initiative on Resilience in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

La hausse des prix alimentaires au Sénégal était telle que les Sénégalais ne pouvaient même pas acheter des produits de base car tout était importé. Sans accès à des semences de bonne qualité, ils ne pouvaient pas produire leur propre nourriture. Un projet visant à cultiver des semences de meilleure...

The biggest challenge we face now is the limited awareness of ecological practices and lack of land for smallholders. We are very much against the current push for hybrids and GMOs and the dependence that comes with them. Thus we call upon our government to declare Tanzania free of such...

This Blog article resumes the work FAO is undertaking with the European Union under the Millennium Development Goal 1c programme (MDG1c) to support smallholder farmers to develop improved post-harvest techniques. Since the inception of the project, over 260 artisans were trained in 15 districts of Mozambique in building and promoting improved...

The Republic of Angola and the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed an agreement to finance the Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture Project (AFAP)  in Bengo, Cuanza Norte, Luanda and Malange provinces in the central-north region of Angola.

L’étude sur le coût de la faim (CDFA) au Burkina Faso est une initiative placée sous le leadership de l’Union africaine (UA), de la Commission économique pour l’Afrique (CEA) et du Programme alimentaire mondial (PAM). L’étude régionale a été présentée en mars 2012 aux Ministres africains chargés des finances, du...

The newsletter opens with several articles that address issues that are key to improving nutrition. In Chad, FAO is working with administrative and traditional authorities to implement an innovative approach aimed at increasing women’s access to fertile land, a winning formula for improving the livelihoods of rural households. Another initiative...

Hassan Adile connaît bien la sécheresse. À l’instar des 12 millions de pasteurs que compte l’Éthiopie, il parcourt de grandes distances pour trouver des pâturages et de l’eau pour son bétail. Aujourd’hui, il a une nouvelle responsabilité. Il a suivi récemment une formation pour apprendre à déceler les signes avant-coureurs...

 Women in Asia are, in most cases, the farmers. But more than that, they are concerned about the nutrition of their families. There are actually more women interested in the models of agriculture that support diversity and nutrition. There are many cases of women who are fighting for land, particularly...

Women from small and marginal farming families doing SRI have been making the news in India for their adoption of a new approach that challenges the age-old beliefs and practices of rice farming. However, rarely one comes across mention of the impact of SRI on their wellbeing and their bodies.  ...

We study the dynamics of the supply response of smallholder grain producers to changes in crop prices and costs of production in Ethiopia. We develop an intertemporal acreage demand allocation model of a representative household under a rational expectations hypothesis. An estimable acreage demand equation is derived and estimated for...

The European Union (EU), FAO and the Government of Zimbabwe launched a major programme to assist smallholder farmers boost productivity and engage in commercial agriculture through integrated farming approaches. The 4-year US$19 million programme is managed by FAO and focuses on smallholder irrigation and livestock production support activities. As part...

Conceptually, the benefits of irrigation are realized through improvements in agricultural productivity. At household level, the agricultural production increases could be followed by improvements in income generation and food consumption patterns. The goal of this research was to examine the relationship between irrigation, income generation and household consumption patterns for...

Au Bénin, le stock de poissons des lacs et des zones humides s’est épuisé du fait de la surpêche et de la destruction des mangroves et des habitats naturels. Aujourd’hui, ces lacs ont été revalorisés et les pêcheurs et vendeurs de poissons trouvent d’autres moyens de gagner leur vie.

Northern Uganda is home to 20 per cent of Uganda's entire population, but it accounts for 38 per cent of Uganda's poorest. The Acholi sub-region and Adjumani district have suffered more from recent internal conflicts than other areas in the north. Living in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps has...

Ownership of assets is important for poverty alleviation, and women’s control of assets is associated with positive development outcomes at the household and individual levels. This research was undertaken to provide guidance for agricultural development programs on how to incorporate gender and assets in the design, implementation, and evaluation of...

As the World Forestry Congress convenes in Durban, South Africa, forest producers should be embraced and inserted at the center of strategies to protect forests, and to ensure that the strategies benefit both local people and the global environment.

Intense watershed management and water harvesting in the state of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, have transformed the area beyond recognition and increased food security and enhanced resilience to floods and droughts. A new way of thinking about watershed management and the efforts of local farmers have contributed to the success of...

This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 makes the case that social protection measures will help break the cycle of rural poverty and vulnerability, when combined with broader agricultural and rural development measures. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing poverty have been met by many countries, yet...