The European Union-funded United Nations Joint Programme for Support to Rural Entrepreneurship, Investment and Trade and in Papua New Guinea (EU-STREIT PNG) continues to expand its support to rural areas of the Greater Sepik Region, specifically targeting women and youth in capacity building of agri-food value chain. Here, the programme...

A two-day virtual regional consultation titled “Engaging with Academia and Research Institutions (ARIs) to Support Family Farmers and Food System Transformation During and Post COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia” was held by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the Asian Farmers’ Association for...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), under the EU-STREIT PNG Programme, has launched an Innovation Fund to stimulate investments in Cocoa, Vanilla and Fisheries businesses as well as to promote development of local companies and entrepreneurs in the Greater Sepik Region of Papua New Guinea. The Fund...

This article reflects on the regional dialogue on agroecology held on 12 May 2022 and co-organized by Global Alliance for the Future of Food (GAFF), Asia Farmers Association (AFA), and Andhra Pradesh Community-managed Natural Farming (APCNF) with technical assistance from the FAO. The event was a follow-up to the  GAFF, 2021 publication entitled The Politics of Knowledge: Understanding the Evidence...

After a particularly complicated and violent period in its history under the Khmer Rouge regime, Cambodia can boast of having halved its poverty rate between 2014 and 2022. Even if extreme poverty is still far from being eradicated today, this progress proves that it is not inevitable.

"This collection of essays provides a wealth of information and analysis about the Philippine economy and the role of agriculture and economic policy in it. The Philippine experience has been quite different from the highly successful Asian economies, with a long period of low growth until the turn of the...

This 61st edition of Tropical Forest Issues (formerly ETFRN News) includes a collation of 25 articles from a total of more than 100 contributors. There are more than 20 case studies from across tropical America, Asia and Africa, with others that explain the importance of the ecology, management and concepts related to fire...

The Regional Action Plan for strengthening family farming in South Asia has been elaborated through a participatory and multi-stakeholder approach in the framework of the UN Decade of Family Farming and in close collaboration with SAARC Agriculture Center, the Asia Farmer Association for Sustainable Rural Development and the International Cooperative...

Agroecology is not new. It is based on traditional ecological knowledge and can be found in family farmers’ practices, in grassroots social movements for sustainability and the public policies of various countries around the world. However, the education on agroecology has been largely in an informal manner. Given the challenges...

Many passionate farmers are giving back to the society by sharing their knowledge and experience on growing food in an eco-friendly manner. This is how knowledge got passed from generation to generation, traditionally. But, present day farmers are moving a step ahead by integrating the modern technology and social media,...

Traditional mountain landscapes governed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) conserve unique wildlife and agrobiodiversity, and strongly support climate change adaptation and mitigation by protecting ecosystem services, including grasslands that store almost 50% more carbon than forests. But mountain biodiversity and the Indigenous and traditional peoples that sustain it are...

Dans les campagnes de l’Andhra Pradesh, cet Etat agricole du sud-est qui a lancé depuis 2018 le plus grand programme d’agroécologie au monde. Près d’un million de paysans y sont déjà passés au "natural farming", délaissant OGM, pesticides, fongicides, et engrais chimiques.   

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has signed an agreement with the Chinese Government officially launching Phase III of the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) Programme. The General Agreement was signed by the Director-General of FAO, QU Dongyu and the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the...

This webinar shared the findings of joint work by FAO, CIRAD (Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement) and the NGO AVSF (Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières), illustrated with three examples of field school programmes from Togo, Mali and India.

During the first three years of implementation of the UNDFF in the RAP region, significant results have been achieved. One can mention for instance the development of the SAARC Regional Action Plan for Family Farming, as well as the development of National Action Plans for Family farming in Indonesia (implementation...

Urban home gardening, limited to private residential spaces, has a potential to address the urban food supply chain, when expanded. In Kerala, urban home gardening, supported by governmental intervention and people’s social media-based initiative has become a wider societal movement. Light weight designed grow bags are used for rooftop garden Kerala, a...

Peri-urban areas are not ‘waiting rooms’ for entry into urban areas. A fundamental change in mindsets is needed, to prevent further land-use changes and unregulated construction activities. The situation can be better managed by promoting and maintaining multifunctional green spaces and also peri-urban agriculture. The initiative of co creation of...

The Philippines is rich in natural resources such as fertile lands. However, the economic surplus generated from the use of land as the main productive agricultural resource has been sub-optimal. A key strategy is to link farmers to the market. This requires a systematic scanning of the state-of-the-art in commercial agriculture, benchmarking the farm-market linkage,...

The evidence-based sector-wide assessment opens with analyzing time-series global and regional trade data and agriculture and fisheries policies. It presents evidence of the agrifisheries sector constituting the country's poor and questions the decades of government support in the form of subsidies toward rice self-sufficiency. The analysis presents a strong case...

This infographic shows the strategy used by Tropenbos Indonesia to reduce the risks of peatland fires. The strategy implies rewetting peatlands, alternative production systems, protection of forests and most important involving local stakeholders in a collaborative management process. Infographic developed under the Fire-smart landscape governance programme as part of the Working Landscapes programme financed by...