In Indonesia, forest tenure has long been a source of conflict. About two thirds of the country's terrestrial area is classified as state-forest land, even though local people have been living there for many generations. When the government allocates these areas for production or conservation purposes, local people face the...

Welimada is a hilly area in the district of Badulla, Uva province, Sri Lanka. Growing upcountry tea and crops is the main livelihood of the 85% of the population in village. The people mainly cultivate potatoes, beans, cabbages, carrots, leeks, and beetroots. [...]

Au-delà du miel, les produits de la ruche comme le pollen et la propolis des mélipones peuvent être récoltés facilement, représentant une possible source de revenu supplémentaire pour les agriculteurs. Cette fiche technique explique des procédures simples pour récolter le miel, le pollen et la propolis des mélipones (abeilles sans...

Formalizing community rights to forests In many parts of the world, forests that are managed and used by local communities and Indigenous Peoples are under increasing pressure from outside forces such as commercial plantation development, mining and logging. Also, preservationist approaches to nature conservation may threaten local people’s access to the...

Agriculture, as a vital sector of the Indonesian economy, provides income for the majority of Indonesian households today. Despite serving as the backbone of one of the nation’s most economically important sectors, women in agriculture are marginalized and often have little access to financial resources, knowledge and technology to improve...

At a time when the CSA movement globally is working to gain greater recognition by policy makers, it comes a jaw-dropping and agreeable surprise to discover the extent to which CSA in China has gained legal status and is perceived as a genuine part of the way forward by all...

The FAO Director-General lauded South Korea's remarkable progress in recent decades - in both nutritional and economic development - as well as its leading role in scientific and technological advancements, including in the use of innovative ICT solutions in agriculture.

AFOSP-MTCP2 farmer organizations participate in the Workshop on Developing Action Plan for Enhancing the Role of Agricultural Cooperative in the Global Value Chain on 28 February 2019 at the Prince Palace Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. This workshop is co-organized by the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association and La Via Campesina together with...

The Ho Chi Minh City food system faces many challenges: the high use of chemicals for agriculture, the lack of means and knowledge for smallholder farmers to develop and transition towards more sustainable production systems, the vulnerability to climate change and the legacy of the war that contaminated most of...

FAO assesses that globally 41 countries, of which 31 are in Africa, continue to be in need of external assistance for food. Conflict remains the main driver of high levels of severe food insecurity. Weather‑induced production declines and economic instability have also adversely impacted on food availability and access.

South Asia, comprised of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is home to about 1.8 billion people -- nearly 25% of the world’s population. But with an area of 5.2 million square kilometers, or some 1% of the world’s area, South Asia is the most densely...

This is the second annual report developed collaboratively by United Nations agencies on progress in Asia and the Pacific towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2030. Its findings are a cause for concern. The SDG hunger deadline is just over a decade away, and...

A rapid increase in aquaculture production in Bangladesh has lowered fish prices, increased protein consumption, and reduced poverty. The Making of a Blue Revolution in Bangladesh offers a valuable case study of how this transformation in the fish value chain has occurred and how it has improved the lives of...

The ACIAR project ‘Strategies Using Floriculture to Improve Livelihoods in Indigenous Australian and Pacific Island Communities’ utilised value chain analyses as a unifying framework in and across participating countries. The overall aim of this multifaceted project was to identify constraints and opportunities for indigenous enterprise development through floriculture. The potentially...

Ahead of Indigenous Terra Madre Asia and Pan-Pacific, running from October 11-14th 2019 in Hokkaido, Japan, we spoke to indigenous delegate Imanul Huda, member of the Kapuas Hulu Slow Food Community in Indonesia. In our interview, Imanul discusses his involvement with Slow Food and his work to protect natural resources and sustainable food sources...

With increasing concerns on the sustainability of agricultural systems, many tools have been developed to assess farm sustainability. The main objective of this study was to assess and compare the sustainability of different forms of family farm organization. A second objective was to test the relevance of the IDEA method...

The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) today approved an FAO project designed to transform Pakistan’s Indus River Basin by improving agriculture and water management to make this vital food-producing region more resilient to climate change. The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has provided FAO with a grant of nearly $35...

Cocoa is a key crop for many Indonesian smallholder farmers, who own over 90 percent of the country’s cocoa production land. However, cocoa bean yields have fallen from around 750 kg/ha in the 1980s to below 400 kg/ha over the last two decades, with ageing trees, pests, diseases, poor soil...

There are hints of ecological farming everywhere you look on Jit Bahadur Singar’s farm. Plastic bottles holding a few drops of imitation pheromones hang among bitter gourd plants to attract pests. A home brew of animal urine, leaves, and remnants of garlic, hot pepper and tobacco – a bio-pesticide –...

The main aim of this handbook is to help farmers make their own farms more successful. This is done by providing information about using simple methods which strengthen, rather than damage the environment, and help to create sustainable livelihoods for future generations. The techniques described in the handbook are the results...