Given that the population of the Sahel depends largely on rain-fed agriculture and transhumant livestock rearing, there is a growing concern about the future climate of the region as global warming may alter the availability of water resources. The lack of consensus on climate projections for West Africa results partly...

Ahead of the negotiations, which are due to end on Friday, development agencies had hoped for the establishment of a work plan on agriculture that would pave the way for more concrete discussions on assistance for struggling small-scale farmers.

Climate change is a major challenge in Europe as well as globally with potential implications for issues including food security and environmental protection. As reflected in the priorities for the current period, EU rural development policy must play its part in contributing solutions. Rural areas and activities can be surprisingly...

If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, productivity could increase by 20 to 30 percent, according to FAO data. Yet females – who make up 43 percent of the agricultural labour force globally – are often viewed as unpaid family labour. Their contribution goes unrecognized, and...

Mapping the Local and Solidarity-based Partnerships in the Mediterranean Basin is an extremely challenging task: it means dealing with a new and rapidly growing field. To date, to the best of our knowledge, there is has been no study that deals specifically with local food systems in the area as...

The headlines are full of stories about migration, food and climate change – soil, perhaps unsurprisingly, barely gets a mention in these stories, yet it is crucial to understanding all three issues. Shockingly, the UK estimates that there are only 100 harvests left in its soil. More than 300 civil organisations,...

La Plataforma de Conocimientos sobre Agricultura Familiar de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura (FAO), el Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres del Ministerio de Desarrollo Social (MIDES) de Uruguay, el Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca de Uruguay, a través de su Dirección General...

The 2016 Agriculture Status Report has as its main objective to: (i) highlight major trends in African agriculture, the drivers of those trends, and the emerging challenges that Africa’s food systems are facing in the 21st century; (ii) identify policies and programs that can support the movement of Africa’s farming...

La politique agricole commune (PAC) a été mise en place en 1962. Il s'agit d'une politique commune à tous les États membres de l’Union européenne (UE), gérée et financée grâce aux ressources du budget annuel de l’UE, dont la PAC représente près de 40%. Ses principaux objectifs sont d'améliorer la...

Efforts to rapidly increase on-farm biodiversity are a matter of urgency in an era of climate change. To do so, farmers need better access to the genetic material of research stations and gene banks. Collaboration with scientists who are willing and able to work together with family farmers is crucial....

Farmer groups and individuals in Burkina Faso explain the benefits and challenges of a low-cost drip irrigation system, and show how such a system is set up. A social innovation is included that relates to organic matter management.

The future of the EU’s rural development depends on digital technologies, which are essential to fill the existing gap with urban areas, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan has said.

At its 12th regular session held on 13 July 2016, the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Organic Farming Law, following its prior approval by the House of Peoples. The Law enters into force on the eighth day following its publication in the...

This study assesses the short-term effects of large irrigation dams on household consumption in the northern part of Nigeria. Using two rounds of the Nigeria LSMS survey, we apply multinomial logit inverse probability weighting (MIPW) methods to construct matching samples across three different types of hydrological basins – dam basins,...

Dans de nombreuses régions agricoles du Maroc, l’irrigation est un facteur essentiel puisqu’elle permet d’accroître la productivité agricole et permet de garantir aux agriculteurs un revenu plus important. Cependant, le manque d’eau qui s’intensifie avec les changements climatiques, est un réel défi pour les producteurs marocains qui sont, pour la plupart, largement dépendant des...

Smallholder farmers in the Arabian Peninsula region are severely constrained by the region’s extreme aridity, scanty water resources and erratic rainfall. Conditions have become even more challenging as over %95 of the region’s land area now faces some form of desertification from wind and water erosion, and salinization. The increasing...

Improving food safety and competitiveness in Georgia’s commercial dairy sector was the focus of the country's first National Dairy Congress, held this week in the capital Tbilisi. The event, organized by FAO and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, drew around 150 participants, including commercial dairy farmers, processors, input and...

Dix ans après un précédent dossier sur le financement des exploitations familiales ouest-africaines, Inter-réseaux a décidé de consacrer de nouveau un numéro de sa revue Grain de sel à ce sujet. Passant en revue les différents moyens qu’ont les exploitations familiales pour accéder à des crédits aujourd’hui, ce numéro s’interroge...

In our last newsletter we announced plans by Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), IFOAM – Organics International, Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative for Africa (EOA-I), and AfroNet to hold a conference on the changing food systems in Africa. The conference comes at a time when African states are beginning...

The experiments in farming described in this book represent new social forms of agriculture which have arisen in recent years while traditional family farms have declined and industrial agriculture has increased. These new famers involve many local families directly in the decisions and labour which produce the vegetables, fruits, milk,...