August 12th is International Youth Day and this year it is dedicated to the theme of Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health. The day is a way to celebrate the efforts and achievements of young people already at the forefront of food systems change. “When you’re thinking about the health...

Food security is paramount in Bangladesh, which has a high population density (1329 people per km2) and poverty rate (18.7%). Seed is a critical input in agriculture. The timely use of quality seeds of potential varieties can increase yields by up to 25%. Currently, about 46% of the farmers in...

AFSA is delighted to launch a series of five national reports, within AFSA’s Our Land is Our Life land rights initiative in these countries. These reports aim to: Examine Land Policies and Governance: They seek to understand the national land policies and governance structures, focusing on how these policies affect peasants’ rights,...

Daouda Ndiaye of the National Collective of Artisanal Fishermen of Senegal (CNPS from the French)wears several hats. He is Co-chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) and vice-president in charge of communication of the Joint Commission of the Professional Artisanal Fisheries Organizations of Senegal (CONIPAS). Edited excerpts of...

The government of Tanzania has drafted a strategy to improve the performance of organic agriculture and increase the production of organic foods in the country. The "National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy" is an eight-year initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, which will officially launch in June 2023. The strategy...

Wildlife and People in the Rupununi is a book consisting of a collection of engaging articles on the technical and scientific work completed by the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM)Programme in Region 9 between 2018 and 2023. The SWM Programme is a major international initiative that aims to reconcile food security...

La Stratégie nationale de développement de l’agroécologie au Burkina Faso (SND-AE) a été élaborée pour aider le pays à s’investir dans l’intensification agroécologique en vue de réaliser une sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle durable dans un contexte environnemental caractérisé par la baisse des précipitations, la dégradation des sols et des ressources...

  Topic outline   This course aims to contribute towards creating an enabling environment for implementing the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing sustainable Small-scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, by strengthening the capacity of government officials and fisheries practitioners at local, national and regional levels, and...

Along with Greece, Italy and Portugal, Spain is the country in continental Europe that is faced with the largest percentage of desertification and the greatest water shortages.Next to climate change, intensive and conventional farming are the main causes of this catastrophic form of land degradation. According to the European Commission,...

Because of our seed bank, we have native varieties again. By using indigenous seed our costs have reduced as we can grow and keep our own seed. So, we don’t have to depend on the market. In our seed bank, we also train farmers how to grow crops organically, free...

The efforts of agroecology-oriented farmers and peasants’ orga-nizations have been studied in depth in relation to their political expression, but less so with regard to the forms they adopt to strengthen the socio-economic viability of small- and medium- sized farms within sustainable food systems. Whilst farmers’ self- organization represents a...

Globally, climate change is triggering shifts in water availability, especially across arid and desert landscapes similar to that in Yemen, where precipitation patterns are increasingly erratic. Here, we use water budget calculations, drought metrics, and trend analyses to examine climatic water deficits, with the aim of unraveling irrigation demands and...

AFSA is delighted to launch a series of five national reports, within AFSA’s Our Land is Our Life land rights initiative in these countries. These reports aim to: Examine Land Policies and Governance: They seek to understand the national land policies and governance structures, focusing on how these policies affect peasants’ rights,...

This publication is a significant contribution to the agroecological transition. It results from documenting good and little-known stories about traditional seeds, local seeds and farmers’ seed systems. Seed practitioners provide the initial stories. A multi-disciplinary review committee then helped finalize the stories to provide readers and policy-makers with the arguments...

This paper responds to current concerns about quantitative methods for studying decision-making by describing the development of and results from an innovative transdisciplinary and mixed-methods tool for researching intrahousehold decision-making. The tool focuses specifically on decision-making about agricultural- and expenditure-related matters by spouses in marital or cohabiting relationships, although it...

Rural women face double discrimination. The first is directed against the rural areas, which are marginalized by public policies, are invisible in relevant debates, ridiculed and blamed at for its social and economic problems, poverty, lack of education, migration and many other consequences of historical and systemic discrimination. The second...

A practical process that supports better, more sustainable decisions about land, by all those who need to make them, including local and national government, businesses and communities. It is based on a set of principles and practices designed to align top-down and bottom-up priorities, mediate competing pressures and encourage multifunctionality.  It brings together key data and...

When Suzana Hamimu Kaleju began working as a fish processor 30 years ago in the port of Kigoma, she used to lay the sprat, a type of herring, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika before selling her dried fish in local and regional markets. They would get dusty or sandy so...

Mountains and islands make up 30 percent of the earth's surface area and are home to approximately 1.3 billion people. Mountain and island communities are among the worst hit by climate change, suffering from high rates of poverty and hunger and struggling to cope with natural disasters. The Mountain Partnership Secretariat...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) raises a dire warning about the escalating food crisis in the Sudan. As conflict and economic decline continue to ravage the country, urgent and intensified humanitarian support for rural communities is urgently needed. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) projections,...