Join an interactive network of policy makers interested in making our food systems sustainable in the face of current global challenges. Through this network you will have the opportunity to meet, learn and get inspired by other policy makers via peer-to-peer exchanges. Share your experiences, get to know the evidence...

Did you know that chocolate is obtained from beans extracted from the fruit of a tree called Theobroma cacao? The fruits are yellow or deep red pods that contain beans covered with a sweet-bitter pulp. Cacao originated in the Amazon region and, for this reason, South America has the highest...

The policy brief reviews the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrants working in agri-food systems and their families in rural areas of origin. It points out some of the policy implications and presents key policy recommendations. Measures affecting the movement of people (internally and internationally) and resulting labour shortages,...

Organic agriculture is an integrated production management system that promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of natural inputs (i.e. mineral and products derived from plants) and the renunciation of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

The objective of implementing the slope agriculture land technology (SALT) is to stabilize the slope and improve the terrace or the contours in order to control soil erosion along the slopes and improve soil fertility. This practice describes how to implement the SALT method.

The technology was developed in collaboration with farmers in the Teso farming system of Uganda. It comprises of the development of appropriate animal-drawn implements, primarily for weeding but also for ridging (sweet potatoes), line planting and lifting (groundnuts). These implements are now being manufactured locally. Impact assessments showed that adoption...

Farmers in Uganda started taking care of pigs in their sties because of problems with the pigs that were free roaming. Farmers would not know where the pigs had gone and what they had eaten or whether they had contracted any disease.

Amélie Dennebouy has challenged gender stereotypes to become a successful mussel entrepreneur in Pénestin, France. “ We don’t employ women!” Just how many times Amélie Dennebouy, a mussel farm worker, heard that phrase since she began working in the sector at age 17, it would be impossible to say. “Ten years...

Confronted with plans for an offshore wind farm, the fishers of the Bay of Saint Brieuc in France are clamouring for their rights to be respected and guaranteed. It is important to highlight that the millions of people who, to this day, still rely on ocean space for their lives and...

Dentro de la construcción de la línea de base tecnológica y socioeconómica de la producción de hortalizas, se consideró como uno de los elementos más importantes que afecta la competitividad y la inocuidad de los productos hortícolas la presencia de plagas en el sentido amplio, lo cual afecta la sanidad...

The dynamics of the size distribution in growing and dividing rod-shaped bacteria can change depending on the perspective through which the cell population is observed. From the perspective of single-cell lineages, only one descendant is followed after each division, while in population snapshots all of the offspring is considered. In...

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 include strong restrictions of movement which dramatically change daily lives and impact agricultural livelihoods. These measures are particularly difficult for the rural poorest and most vulnerable, who tend to hold jobs and occupations which cannot be performed remotely. Many of the world’s poor...

A través de este documento, nos interesa proponer una reflexión crítica en torno a la situación actual de impacto mundial de la pandemia del Coronavirus o Covid-19 y su relación con la vida y territorios indígenas, frente a la cual ha quedado en evidencia una serie de situaciones que, a...

Les bananes sont l’aliment de base des populations dans de nombreuses régions d’Afrique de l’Est. Elles constituent une bonne source de potassium, lequel intervient dans l’équilibre des fluides du corps et un aliment idéal pour les enfants en bas âge, les invalides et les personnes atteintes par le VIH/sida. En...

Natural vegetative strips (NVS) are narrow live barriers comprising naturally occurring grasses and herbs. Wide strips are left unploughed to allow vegetation to grow and to slow surface runoff. Natural terraces form over time as a result of the eroded soil accumulation on the strips. The vegetation on the established...

Rodents consume food in the field as well as in storage. Their contamination of stored food and ability to spread diseases causes them to cut across both the natural resources and health sectors. Research in Mozambique and in South Africa found that people have little understanding of the ecology of...

Home gardens (HGs) are hotspots of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. We conducted a case study in Tabasco, México, on HG owners’ knowledge of HG ecological, economical and socio-cultural multifunctionality and how it relates to agrobiodiversity as measured by species richness and diversity. The term multifunctionality knowledge refers to owners’ knowledge...

Las mujeres rurales enfrentan grandes brechas y barreras en la región en materia de acceso y control de activos rurales como la tierra y los capitales financieros; de distribución y de reconocimiento del trabajo productivo y reproductivo; de equidad en el nivel de ingresos; en la toma de decisiones; en...

As part of a national action plan to manage animal genetic resources in Burundi, we characterized smallholders’ goat production systems and assessed the effect of Boer crossbreeding on animal body measures. To that end, 319 farmers were surveyed in the five agro-ecological zones of Burundi and the zootechnical measures of...

En su intervención, José Mujica, Ex Presidente del Uruguay, destacó la importancia de la agricultura familiar en nuestra región, incluyendo su historia, su trayectoria y su futuro. Mujica enfatizó la importancia de la voluntad política para proteger los derechos y habilidades de los agricultores familiares e hizo un llamado a...