Students learn about farming and food systems, acquire communication and facilitation skills, and become able to turn theory into action. Students also learn how to reflect and to open up to new ideas while recognizing the goals, needs and interests of their co-workers. The program is designed to develop agroecologists...

In the last years, Agroecology Europe started to map agroecological initiatives in different countries or regions of Europe with the aim to support the development of agroecology in Europe, raise awareness for it and thereby strengthen agroecology in Europe. This work, namely the mapping of initiatives, writing of reports and coordination...

FAO, along with its partners in Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan, is taking action to accelerate the digital transformation of agriculture and rural areas through the Digital Villages Initiative (DVI).  Join us for the “Digital Villages in Action in Europe and Central Asia” virtual event, where...

Alors que le conflit russo-ukrainien s’installe dans la durée, l’approvisionnement en blé des pays d’Afrique qui dépendent de l’extérieur constitue une source d’inquiétude majeure. Cet approvisionnement est avant tout tributaire des capacités de l’Union européenne et de la Russie à exporter et la réduction de l’offre ukrainienne en blé renforce...

The Family Farming Knowledge Platform (FFKP) Monthly Digest showcases the latest contents uploaded in the FFKP to provide its readers with relevant and up to date information on family farming main themes such as agroecology, smallscale fisheries, pastoralism, indigenous people, and more.

his first book volume collects country reports produced by the AE4EU Horizon 2020 project and the European Association Agroecology Europe which involved a large number of organisations, as well as more than 25 "mappers" who conducted the work in different European countries. Among them were many members of the Agroecology...

European and world agriculture is at a critical juncture. According to the FAO, about 33% of the world’s soils are degraded, with intensive agriculture (maximising agricultural production on a given area of land with excessive use of inputs, intensive tillage and monocultures) being one of the main drivers. Biodiversity loss...

In the 1500s, when men on sailing ships were casually spreading crop plants from one continent to the next, maize came to Africa. Fortunately, many of the maize pests stayed behind, in the Americas. But slowly, trade and travel are re-uniting maize with its pests. A caterpillar called the fall...

The brochure provides an introduction to the Regional Technical Platform on Green Agriculture, which is a digital, user-friendly, open, intraregional and interregional gateway for sharing information. It is a knowledge repository that facilitates connections among expert networks regarding various technical areas related to green agriculture. The brochure outlines the main...

Large, flavorful tomatoes ripen in Odina Sattorova’s backyard greenhouse in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana Valley. Their perfect shape, rich colour and smooth texture – undeniable indicators of quality – are the result of many days of intensive work in the greenhouse. Odina, who has worked in greenhouses taking care of seedlings and...

This brief examines some of the key legal considerations related to school gardens, and also explores regulatory options for strengthening the legislative environment for sustainable school food and nutrition in the country. This brief is rooted in a holistic approach to school food and nutrition and the analysis provided in...

Elsa Varela is a postdoctoral researcher with expertise on silvopastoral systems, rural livelihoods and environmental valuation of ecosystem services in the Mediterranean. She recently joined the Social-ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems group to investigate innovative strategies for improving the sustainability and resilience of multifunctional landscapes and their associated farming systems. Read on to...

The “SDG localization in Europe and Central Asia – Guidelines to support subnational development planning and budgeting” provides guidance to support local authorities and other relevant stakeholders in subnational development planning and budgeting, in the context of SDG localization. It gives an overview of decentralization and subnational decision-making in Europe...

In 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO) launched the global Digital Villages Initiative to promote digital innovations to rural communities. Now the initiative is being scaled up in Europe and Central Asia, aiming to improve livelihoods, wellbeing, and social cohesion in this region. The virtual event...

Following the evidence-based analysis of gender in the regional response to the war in Ukraine published last year, the Regional Gender Task Force, the leading advocacy and information and coordination platform on gender in humanitarian action in Europe and Central Asia, has released a new gender brief on Ukrainian refugees’ livelihoods...

Learning by doing is one of the most powerful educational approaches, both for adults and children. Kids observe what their parents and others in the community do, and they copy it.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is hosting the third regional workshop of an informal technical network on community development for Europe and Central Asia. Members will discuss ways to promote the principles of the territorial approaches to rural development in the region. The event is...

This Regional Initiative uses a complex, multidisciplinary and area-based development approach, tailored to the Europe and Central Asia region. It takes into consideration the region’s heterogeneity and the special challenges it faces. The overall goal is to address the key problems of rural people by empowering smallholders and family farms to...

On 20 December, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and oriGIn hosted the online event, Third regional consultation on geographical indications in Europe and Central Asia. Some 111 representatives from 34 countries of geographical indications (GIs) groups, national intellectual property offices and the World Intellectual Property...

Short food chains narrow the gap between producers and consumers, but when food is traded through wholesalers and when supermarkets sell their own brands, active efforts are undertaken to make farmers anonymous. This never really occurred to me until Vera Kuijpers, from the organic farm and farm shop Het Eikelenhof in north-eastern Limburg,...