Décadas de escasa inversión pública en agricultura han debilitado la capacidad de los agricultores para hacer frente a la volatilidad de los precios, a los cambios climáticos y económicos, o para poder salir por sí mismos de la pobreza. Sin embargo, los donantes y los gobiernos deben considerar la inversión...

This thesis investigates recent social, economical and environmental changes promoted by the process of modernization of agriculture and the commoditization taking place in the western region of Santa Catarina, Brazil. It also identifies and studies some of the  strategies carried out by family farmers seeking to face the context of...

Structural changes in agriculture have been going on in many countries all over the world during the last two decades. Developments were forced by radical reforms of countries concerned resulting in to establishing new farm structure. Large scale farm systems were broken up and tens of millions of small farms...

This dissertation addresses the issue of public policies for rural development in Brazil, more specifically those aimed at the family farm. The Program for Food Acquisition (PAA) was elected, by integrating on a movel/innovative agricultural and food security. Moreover, public policy research relating to family agriculture and food security and...

Este documento, desde análisis históricos enmarcados en algunas teorías y desde el reconocimiento de la Agroecología como ciencia que debe asumir un rol mucho más protagónico en la definición de las futuras políticas de producción, pretende aportar elementos útiles para dicho debate. El mismo se estructura de la siguiente manera....

El artículo realiza un recorrido histórico del pensamiento social agrario y sus propuestas de desarrollo rural hasta llegar a la agroecología. La reflexión se inicia apuntando el sesgo que la economía convencional impone a categorías analíticas tales como producción, crecimiento y desarrollo, siguiendo los planteamientos de la economía ecológica. Se...

Dairy farms in Austria are rather small - 64 tons of milk quote per farm in 2008 -           Half of the dairy farmers held less than 40 tons of milk quota -          Definitely less milk cows than in many other EU-countries -          Smaller farms show higher production costs „ Conclusion: smaller farms are less...

This Working Document provides practical guidelines for upgrading agricultural retail markets in rural areas and analyses the strategic potential of upgrading as an important component of rural development. This document presents methodological steps for the design and implementation of appropriate programmes, rather than a single model to replicate. The objective is to propose...

Food systems of Indigenous Peoples who retain connection to long-evolved cultures and patterns of living in local ecosystems present a treasure of knowledge that contributes to well-being and health, and can benefit all humankind. This book seeks to define and describe the diversity in food system use, nutrition and health...

Today, the spectre of hunger has returned to many developing countries. The number of undernourished people has risen above one billion, or one sixth of humanity. The international community faces other daunting challenges, including the global economic downturn, plummeting levels of trade and investment, growing scarcity of natural resources, and the...

This paper uses a newly constructed cross-country database composed of comparable income aggregates to examine the full range of income generating activities carried out by rural households. The analysis paints a clear picture of multiple activities across rural space in countries on all four continents, though less so in the...

Water productivity in smallholder rain-fed agriculture is of key interest for improved food and livelihood security. A frequently advocated approach to enhance water productivity is to adopt water harvesting and conservation technologies (WH). This study estimates water availability for potential in situ WH, and supplemental water demand (SWD) in smallholder...

This paper examines the links between the assets and the economic activities of rural households in developing countries to provide insight into how the promotion of certain key assets—particularly education, land, and infrastructure—influences the economic choices of these households. Nationally representative data from 15 countries which form part of the...

Organic agriculture has been rapidly growing for over a decade and information on certified organic agriculture production and trade is now available for 138 countries. Certified organic areas included 32 million hectares in 2007 – one third of which being arable land and permanent crops, and two-third being permanent pastures...

This joint working paper lays out a rationale and strategic framework for improving food security and managing food-price shocks in the Arab countries. The paper does not provide country specific policy and project recommendations. Such recommendations will follow from the country by country application of the framework, taking into account...

This paper is a shorter, more recent version of an earlier working paper, and uses RIGA data to describe participation in and income shares from the different income generating activities across rural households in different developing countries.

In an effort to improve the food security of rural households and to foster equitable economic growth and development, the Government of Swaziland and FAO, with funding from the European Union (EU), work together to boost agricultural productivity, while at the same time reversing environmental degradation. Smallholder agriculture is a...

The guidelines resulting from this report are principally directed towards sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the lack of farm power and appropriate machinery is having a deleterious effect on rural livelihoods. The farm power and machinery supply chain includes a range of stakeholders from manufacturers and importers through dealers, hire service...

The PRONAF is a governmental program that subsidies the credit for investment to smallholder farming and improves the social development in Brazil. This research was carried out to evaluate the effect of increasing the values of credit for investment used for the PRONAF farmers in semi-arid areas, and their impact...

La presente publicación parte de una premisa ineludible: La comunicación es clave para promover el desarrollo rural sostenible y la Comunicación para el Desarrollo (CpD), un enfoque que integra varios procesos y métodos participativos de comunicación, información y gestión del conocimiento y el uso integrado de medios locales y de...