Document de valorisation des acquis et principales recommandations d’une semaine d’animation et de débats sur les Agricultures Familiales à Madagascar, où la très grande majorité des exploitations agricoles sont familiales (près de 99% selon le recensement agricole de 2004/2005).

Amidst the increasing corporate investment in African farmland the term ‘inclusive business model’ has become a catchphrase touted as an opportunity for incorporating smallholder farmers alongside large-scale commercial farming projects. Inclusive business models require an enabling institutional and regulatory framework. Such frameworks now exist at the international level: the African...

The video explains the feed resources and feeding practices in the free range poultry production system. Suggestions are made for increasing the feeding opportunities of free range poultry and the importance of proper protein and fiber supply for preventing feather pecking is highlighted. Ensuring sufficient protein and fiber supply will...

Smallholder potato farmers in Uganda face many production and marketing challenges including limited access to markets and low surpluses for sale into the market. This study sought to underscore the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ decision to participate in the potato market and level of participation in such markets. Data...

This video shows some of the activities that FAO is implementing in the field to support rural communities in areas that are periodically affected by natural hazards in Southern Africa, mainly droughts, floods and cyclones. While these natural hazards will happen again in the future, and, as a result of...

This technology describes utilizing rooftop water harvesting facilities to increase the availability of water for domestic use and irrigation of backyard tomato gardens. This measure allows small-scale farmers to harvest rainwater from roofs and store it in tanks, ensuring tomato production also during the dry season, when it would be otherwise...

The video explains the feed resources and feeding practices of scavenged based poultry production system. The concept of the scavengeable feed resource is introduced and its assessment through estimation of the scavengeable feed resource inventory and the scavengeable feed resources harvest is explained. Suggestions are made for optimum use of...

Thanks to improved access to information and a powerful participatory communication approach, villagers in isolated communities across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Niger are making strides to improve gender equality and empower women. FAO Dimitra community listeners’ clubs are helping rural populations participate in the development of...

In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 239 million people face serious problems related to food security and nutrition. Family farming appears as an effective model that can provide solutions to overcome this challenge. During the African Regional Dialogue on Family Farming (6-7 November 2013, Cape Town, South Africa), participants identified specific actions...

What used to be considered wasteland – patches alongside roads, streams or between houses – has become a new food basket for cities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, thanks to an FAO project that shows how urban and peri-urban horticulture can have a profoundly positive effect on national...

 Le Cameroun présente une grande diversité agroécologique, qui se traduit par une grande variété d'espèces végétales cultivées et de pratiques. L'agriculture est majoritairement familiale. Cette étude a été menée dans deux sites au Cameroun, l'une dans la région de l'Est dans les villages de Mindourou, Ampel et Medjoh en pleine...

Raised wire-mesh racks, covered with small, silver lake fish drying in the sun, stretch across the Burundi shore of Lake Tanganyika near the small fishing village of Mvugo. While simple in design, these drying racks have made an enormous contribution both to local nutrition and the local economy. Before the...

The Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) is an initiative focused on making risk management an integral part of policy planning and implementation in the agricultural sector in developing countries. The overall objective of PARM is to contribute to sustainable agricultural growth, reduce food insecurity, and improve livelihoods of rural and...

This paper describes why small-scale food producers have so many difficulties to get to markets, delineates types of agricultural markets and main players, defines main challenges and constraints that small-scale food producers face in relation to food production and access to markets, shows cases of good practices and presents solutions...

This edition opens with a report of the last session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which has helped to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment feature prominently in the post- 2015 Development Agenda. This will take over from the Millennium Development Goals, whose 2015 deadline...

While conflict and competition over land is a major trend in Africa, and there are allegations of ‘land grabbing’ of large areas of land from local people, usually by foreign companies, other more localised forms of competition over land are less well understood. This paper presents the case of disputes...

Article relatant les résultats d'études qui démontrent la capacité d’adaptation du mil aux variations du climat, dans les systèmes agricoles dominés par des exploitations familiales au sein desquelles des variétés cultivées présentent une forte diversité génétique.

Recurring drought and crop failure in many parts of the world have led to food and nutrition insecurity, and a dependence on food aid. But recently, some farmers in Kenya have been developing their own sustainable way to secure enough nutritious food along with extra income so that they can...

Face à l’arrivée d’investisseurs  dans le périmètre irrigué de l’Office du Niger (Mali), la recherche-action menée par l’UMR G-EAU avec comme objectifs : d'analyser et comparer les pratiques foncières des exploitants familiaux et des investisseurs ; d'accompagner les acteurs dans l’identification des enjeux à long terme et l’anticipation des conséquences des nouvelles attributions foncières...

Food fairs are an important tool and space to promote food sovereignty as they take place in local public spaces and within people’s own socio-cultural settings. One excellent example was a food fair in Ghana, organised by the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD). Women farmers exhibited traditional...