Almost a decade after the first Congress, IFOAM EU is celebrating its 10th European Organic Congress in the Netherlands this April 2016. The theme of this year’s Congress is transforming food and farming through organics. We want to look at how organic and agro-ecological approaches can really lead future agri-food...

As protein-rich quinoa becomes a trendy food choice worldwide, one pioneering farmer in remote Kyrgyzstan is reaping the benefits. Azamat Kaseev in Kyrgyzstan’s Issyk-Kul province harvested his quinoa crop earlier this month. Equipment, training, field testing and more were provided under an FAO project designed to test the feasibility of quinoa...

L’agriculture et le secteur rural jouent un rôle primordial dans le processus de développement des pays à base agricole. Cette fonction ne peut être assurée qu’à l’aide de politiques publiques qui tiennent compte de la diversité et de la complexité des milieux ruraux. Le préalable est donc d’avoir des connaissances...

During the Soviet era, pesticides were habitually overused or misused in efforts to boost food production. Today, large quantities of obsolete and banned pesticides pose a significant threat to people’s health and the environment. Georgia said goodbye to the last of its stocks of old pesticides last month, as a convoy...

On the coffee flavor is actually very Universal Indonesia, he can translate a matter of taste in every country and eventually everyone recognizes that Indonesian coffee is the best.

Current situation in European agriculture has to meet new challenges due to volatile agricultural markets and uncertain political situation in neighbouring countries. Past events have shown various bottlenecks in contemporary food production and trade. In order to provide for global food security, it is necessary to intensify agriculture, boost production,...

For the past half century agricultural innovation has denied a voice to the many groups who work outside the profession of science – farmers, food providers, women and the urban poor. The value of their expertise gained through practical experience must be recognised in the production and validation of knowledge....

Just days before the progressive National Assembly of Venezuela was dissolved, deputies passed a law which lays the foundation for a truly democratic food system. The country has not only banned genetically modified seeds, but set up democratic structures to ensure that seeds cannot be privatized and indigenous knowledge cannot...

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India. It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.  The movement in Karnataka state was...

Organic Agriculture (OA) is a rapidly growing sector in Africa, with strong links to economic and sociocultural development in the continent (Willer and Kilcher, 2012; Auerbach, 2013). OA can also be seen as a relevant tool to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2, 12, 13 and 15 on sustainable...

Twenty-one Asian countries are participating in a roundtable discussion as part of the FAO’s World Programme for the Census for Agriculture 2020 (WCA 2020).  The roundtable discussion was opened by Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. The census, held once every ten years,...

Les activités agricoles génèrent, parallèlement à la production de biens agricoles, des externalités négatives (coûts sociaux) ou positives (bénéfices ou aménités) non pris en compte par le marché. La réduction des externalités négatives et l’accroissement des externalités positives représentent des atouts pour la collectivité, qui peuvent justifier un soutien financier de la société....

In Vietnam rice is grown on 85% of cultivated land. Annual paddy (unmilled) rice production grew from 19.2 million metric tons in 1990 to 42.4 million metric tons by 2011, and in 2012, Vietnam exported eight million metric tons of rice. These yield increases were achieved through improved seeds, but...

Tubers, pulses and millets are important for the livelihoods and nutrition of poor farmers, especially in fragile regions. These crops are not only underutilized, but are also under researched. Ama Sangathan, a women federation consisting of 1200 indigenous women, have revived these crops in two blocks in Odisha, by their...

In the last two decades, visions of food sovereignty have inspired the origin of social movements, policy innovations, new experiments and debates. The perspective of food sovereignty is thinking by many authors as a ‘dynamic process’, without a clear conceptual and practical definition (Edelman 2014). Many social and rural movements...

Malawi is a small landlocked country in southern Africa, bordered by Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. The majority of Malawians are smallholder farmers, who grow crops for both food and income. More than half of the Malawian population lives in poverty, and the rate of food insecurity is very high. Typical...

China is a large country with diverse agro-ecosystems and numerous different agricultural production systems. These agricultural systems are managed by more than 200 million households who provide agricultural products to meet the needs of almost a fifth of mankind. Agriculture plays numerous key functions, including not only the provision of...

EVENT TO BE HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CZECH MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE MARIAN JURECKA 11 − 12 November 2016, Krtiny, Czech Republic The conference is prepared for farmers, LAG representatives, rural NGOs and members of municipalities. The topic is business start-up aid for young farmers and good practise examples. The conference...

L’agroécologie est avant tout une discipline scientifique au carrefour de l’agronomie et de l’écologie. C’est aussi la somme des pratiques qui en découlent. Elle permet non seulement de transformer l’agriculture mais aussi de repenser l’ensemble des systèmes alimentaires afin de les rendre plus durables. Elle vise à conjuguer production agricole...

New agreement aims to ensure capacity development, farmers’ access to productive resources, knowledge exchange. India's Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and FAO are strengthening their collaboration to boost rural development and reduce poverty in Asia and Africa via local initiatives focused on empowering rural women and youth.