On the 30th of June, 2016, Dr Stephan Rist and Mrs Bettina Scharrer, from the Centre for Development and Environment and Dr. Moser, from the Archives of Rural History – both structures within the University of Bern, Switzerland – hosted the first workshop of a project called “The importance of solidarity...

This report is the product of field work conducted by ACB and Kusamala Institute for Agriculture and Ecology in Dowa district in central Malawi. The objective of the research was to deepen our understanding of the role of farmer seed varieties in smallholder production systems that have come under heavy...

AEI content is organized into topics and principle-based sets. Topics aggregate site content into central  themes. A principle set includes one principle (a useful distillation of evidence, theory  and/or experience) and supporting evidence, case studies, and relevant  techniques.

FAO reported in 2015 that 490 million people are still suffering chronic hunger in Asia and the Pacific region, which is also home to almost 62 percent of the world’s undernourished. “The challenge facing the region is not only to produce more food from the increasingly limited natural resource base...

  The main cause of food insecurity for many communal households in Zimbabwe is their reliance upon a form of subsistence-based agriculture which is dependent on a limited range of inputs often poorly suited to local conditions. The current agricultural system prioritizes monocropping and grain yield over other factors of food...

Mrs Tea Sarim is one of the participating farmers in a European Union funded multi-country (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam and Thailand) project called "Sustaining and Enhancing the Momentum for Innovation and Learning around the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) in the Lower Mekong River Basin" (http://www.sri-lmb.ait.asia/). Mrs Sarim is from...

Over the last decade the organic market in the EU has grown faster than the organic agricultural area, which raises the question to what extent organic supply chains function effectively. Therefore, this study investigated the creation and distribution of added value in a number of organic supply chains in different...

In agroecology, farmers continuously build situation-specific knowledge that allows them to develop under unpredictable and changing circumstances. There are no  fixed prescriptions in agroecology about how to produce, process, market or store food, feed, medicine and fibre. Rather, different practices work in different ways depending on each specific context and ecosystem....

In the framework of the 33th FAO's Regional Conference for the Near East, this  discussion paper is dedicated to small-scale agriculture.  The majority of agricultural activities in the NENA region involves small-holders (small-scale farmers, pastoralists, forest keepers, fishers and aquaculture farmers) who produce the bulk of fresh food supply. The paper analyses the...

Commodification of forests in an era of climate crisis has reduced them to mere ‘carbon stocks’. Forests are also food reservoirs and many rural poor communities depend on forests for meeting their food needs. Given the right support, uncultivated foods can be a solution for addressing the issue of food...

This project specifically aims at increasing local value-added of Armenian organic products as well as assisting higher efficiency of relevant public and private institutions. It will support the RA Ministry of Agriculture with creating a clear and enabling legal environment for organic producers and processors in line with international standards....

Between September 16 and 18, 2016 the North Moravian City of Ostrava will play host to a meeting of the European organizations and communities involved in the project of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The purpose of this gathering that will be attended by over a hundred people from all over...

Since the autumn of 2013, the Commission has worked on a proposal for a new law to replace the current Organic Regulation. There is an ongoing trialogue process which is proceeding at a pace agreed on by the three EU institutions at the beginning of the Slovak Presidency,

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

Pociūnėliai is a small town in Šiauliai County, Lithuania. In recent years its population has been decreasing as young people are leaving for the city and businesses have declined. Men typically work in the farming or forestry sector doing physical labour. The women however have very limited work opportunities. The...

Drylands represent 40% of the Earth's surface, produce 44% of the world’s food and are home to 80% of the world’s poor. Eighty per cent of Kenya comprises arid or semi-arid lands. Rainfall occurs in just one or two short, intense seasons. Because the land is so dry, when rain...

  Learning is a lifetime activity. Nowhere is this clearer than in agriculture, and especially among women farmers. Being responsible for over 70% of agricultural production on our continent, we farm through knowledge sharing. In complex and closely knit social groups, starting in early childhood, knowledge is birthed, nurtured and passed...

The role of small-scale family farms in development is the subject of long-standing debate. Despite predictions on the likely evolution of small farms, as urban and industrial sectors account for larger shares of economic activity, the agricultural landscape in the developing world continues to be dominated by family-operated smallholdings. Consequently,...

Durante los últimos cincuenta años hemos vivido un fuerte proceso de apropiación de las semillas agrícolas por parte de las grandes corporaciones multinacionales. Esto se hace con el apoyo del desarrollo de legislaciones relacionadas que favorecen un tipo de semillas de corte empresarial (híbridas, de alto rendimiento y los transgénicos),...

Entre los días 18 al 21 de octubre de 2016 se realizó en la Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero (UNSE) el Pre Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Sociología Rural (ALASRU). El presente material es un compendio de los resumenes de todos los trabajos presentados en dicha actividad académica. Los trabajos se...