It was early February 2020. I was headed off with my camera crew, our field officer – Kumar and our NGO partner from Bagalkot to visit and film some Fiar Price shops. There were muttered rumours of a virus called COVID. WhatsApp messages, sounding the alarm of a pandemic, were...

Collectively carps represent the largest global aquaculture sector, contributing over 20 percent of global aquaculture production. The Indian major carps including catla (Catla catla), rohu (Labeo rohita) and mrigal (Cirhinnus mrigala) are cultured widely across the Indian sub-continent with the main culture system being a multi-species polyculture in ponds, often...

Access Agriculture participated in the 6th Organic Asia Congress, which was held in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte, Philippines, 6-9 June 2023, under the theme ‘Building World Peace through Organic Agriculture: Food Security Vital to Peace Building.’   The Organic Asia Congress (OAC) is one of the biggest organic events in the world,...

Following a series of training workshops, Access Agriculture has been able to add three new Filipino languages to its award-winning website.  After holding the Tagalog training at the campus of South East Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in Los Banos near Manila, three new...

Insect pests are a serious problem for rice farmers in Cambodia, threatening livelihoods and food security. To protect their yields, farmers are dependent on broad-spectrum pesticides, which has led to a pesticide ‘lock-in’ scenario. Our study aimed to better understand farmers’ current pest management practices and the underlying knowledge and...

This report highlightes outcomes and recommendations provided during the FAO regional expert workshop “Enhancing national climate actions to reduce methane emissions in livestock systems in Asia and the Pacific”. The regional workshop was designed to help countries in Asia and the Pacific identify new opportunities to reduce methane emissions from...

While crop diversification has many benefits and is a stated government objective across the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of South Asia, the complexity of assessment has led to a rather limited understanding on the progress towards, and status of, smallholder crop diversification. Most studies focus on specific commodities or report...

Spring water plays a crucial role in sustaining life in the Himalayas. Yet these vital water sources are drying as a result of natural and anthropogenic factors. In July and August 2020, we conducted phone interviews with leaders from 300 local government units across Nepal to identify the status of...

  Topic outline   In the context of the global water shortages and challenges for water savings in agricultural systems, this course introduces interventions and tools, and more specifically the real water savings in agricultural systems (REWAS) project, that aims to provide practical guidance on the implementation of real water savings.    

Millets are one of the Future Smart Foods (FSFs), indigenous to Nepal. Millets are rich in micronutrients, more resilient to water and heat stresses and can be cultivated in marginal lands and at different altitudes ranging from plain terai to high hills. They can contribute to the overall sustainability of...

Life has always been hard for the nomadic pastoralists in the Himalayas. But with climate change, ever smaller patches of pastureland and armed conflicts, it is now almost impossible for them to survive, which is why more and more pastoralists want to give up. The government has now introduced countermeasures...

This study uses social accounting matrix multipliers and structural path analyses to estimate effects of COVID-19 and related fiscal stimuli on five household groups. The COVID-19 lockdown increased poverty in Pakistan by 15%, which was addressed using a $1.5 billion, digitally implemented Ehsaas Emergency Cash (EEC) program that reached 14.8 million poor...

Agriculture is a fundamentally important human activity that intrinsically depends on nature and at the same time poses a threat to it. Agriculture depends on healthy ecosystems and ecosystem services, such as fresh water, soil fertility, nutrient cycling, pest regulation and pollination. Biodiversity forms the foundation of food production: without...

Poverty alleviation products are made by impoverished producers and marketed as such to improve producers’returns. We implement an online discrete choice experiment on rice in China to explore consumer preference forproducts specifically labelled as poverty alleviation products that represent multiple dimensions of poverty. Wealso differentiate the nature of public and...

Agrifood systems in Asia and the Pacific can be strengthened by tapping on agrifood-tourism linkages. When tourism and agrifood systems interact, both synergies and competition appear. Agriculture and tourism compete between themselves and other sectors for land, water, labour, capital, and transport and logistics services. Cross-sectoral synergies arise when agriculture...

CONTEXT Millions of people living in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India engage in agriculture to support their livelihoods yet are income poor, and food and climate insecure. To address these challenges, policymakers and development programs invest in irrigation-led agricultural intensification. However, the evidence for agricultural intensification to lift farmers' incomes above...

Bangladesh’s small-scale fisheries is going through a phase of multidimensional challenges. There is a lack of grassroot associations and organizations which affiliates fishers and protect their interests. The current study found that one of the root causes of all problems for sustainable and small-scale fisheries in the country stem from...

Audio podcast of Access Agriculture Co-founder Phil Malone in conversation with Neeraj Kumar, Co-founder of Khetee, an NGO in Bihar, India, on his experience as Access Agriculture’s Entrepreneur for Rural Access (ERA). Listen here ...

Fusarium wilt is a fungal disease that lives in the soil and that spreads through infected seeds. The fungus can survive in the soil for about 3 years. Seed treatment improves germination and helps to keep the crop free from diseases that are in the soil or on the seed....

In his 30 years as a farmer, Illeperuma Arachchilage Rathnayake, or Rathnayake as he’s known in his village, struggled to unlock the full potential of his onion seed cultivation. He began cultivating this crop as a 22-year-old with no official training but relied on lessons and cues from other farmers...