Longxian is a traditional Rice-Fish Culture system (RFC) village, located in Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, China. It spreads over 461 ha and has 50 ha of RFC that represent an ingenious agricultural rice-fish mutuality practiced by farmers over generations. Instead of using pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, fish eat plant hoppers...

A produção de alimentos saudáveis, em quantidade adequada para suprir as necessidades humanas, tem demandado a prática de uma agricultura sustentável, que possibilite a interação entre os seres humanos e os recursos ambientais, de forma que a ação do homem seja componente dos processos ecológicos que acontecem nos agroecossistemas. A valorização...

Chemical pesticides for controlling plant diseases and insect pests in farmlands cause a series of serious problems including residue effects, environmental pollution, etc. Bio-pesticides and bio-controls are, on the other hand, slowly effective, high cost, and, always with certain targets. Integrated, high-efficient and environmentally friendly disease and insect-pest control measures...

"Este número especial de LEISA Revista de Agroecología proporciona una visión general de la importancia de la agricultura a pequeña escala y de un enfoque agroecológico de la agricultura, analizando en detalle cuatro áreas clave: seguridad alimentaria, reducción de la pobreza, energía y el cambio climático."

Seed security initiatives are proliferating in both developmental and crisis contexts but the field as a whole is weak in critical thinking. Two gaps in particular are explored in this paper: the need to set explicit seed security goals and the need to ensure balance among the security elements of...

GIAHS are found throughout the developing world, linked to centers of diversity.  Agroecosystems cover more than one quarter of the global land area, reaching about 5 billion hectares. Agroecosystems are ecosystems in which people have deliberately selected crop plants and livestock animals to replace the natural flora and fauna.  

Aohan Bannery is located in the southeast of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. It is the interface between China’s ancient farming culture and grassland culture. From 2001 to 2003, carbonized particles of foxtail and broomcorn millet were discovered by archaeologists in the “First Village of China”, Xinglongwa in...

The report analyses the international legal and policy matrix to assess the level of existing support for GIAHS and to ascertain the gaps in that support.

FAO is supporting a micro-financing scheme known as "warrantage" that is empowering smallholder farmers to make more money out of their crops and helping relieve food insecurity. (Ref.F0012/en)

Hani Rice Terraces are located in the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, which is in the southeast part of Yunnan Province. People of various races, with Hani being the main minority group, has built this spectacular agriculture and nature wonders. The magnificent Hani Terrace System is a masterpiece of...

The modernization of Swedish and European agriculture in the past century has increased yields immensely. At the same time, modernization has led to a uniform, biologically depleted agricultural landscape and a number of other negative impacts. Most serious of these impacts are reduced biodiversity, pollution of water and the air,...

Human beings interact with ecosystem through concrete practices, these practices being determined by changing cultural perceptions, both in space and time. There is a wide recognition throughout the globe and across disciplines that regions of ecological prudence exhibit a symbiotic relationship between habitats and culture.

Pastoral landscapes are farmed in many different ways, reflecting the variety of pasture and livestock types (breeds of cattle, sheep and goats) in Europe. Some farming systems make use mainly of grasslands that may be sown or semi-natural vegetation. Others exploit pastures of shrubs, for example heather moorland is a...

Looks at solidarity purchasing groups in Tuscany as an example of consumer intiated alternative food networks.

During the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations launched a Global Partnership Initiative on conservation and adaptive management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). The goal of the initiative is: to identify and safeguard GIAHS...

Public lecture: Food movements, agroecology, and the future of food and farming. Today, a billion people live in hunger. Peak oil and environmental degradation threaten the food security of billions more, particularly with half the world's population living in urban environments where they are dependent on industrially produced and imported...

This report presents findings and recommendations from a five-year national project – Mapping Local Food Webs – to engage local volunteers across England to research their local food ‘webs’: the network of links between people who buy, sell, produce and supply food sourced locally.

A journey in "Le Conche", farm of the young Calabrian farmer Vincenzo Sposato: his passion for the job, the relationship with the family, friendship and his future plans. The story focuses on the innovations brought by Vincenzo who having inherited a traditional olive trees farm,  in a few years turned...

Cascina Barosi is a farm completely run by women. Cascina Barosi is a journey backwards, from big cities to the countryside. Benedetta, from Milan, managed a farm near Cremona. The film recounts his relationship with technology, enabling her to remotely control to the work on the farm, succeeding so to...

When Cuba faced the shock of lost trade relations with the Soviet Bloc in the early 1990s, food production initially collapsed due to the loss of imported fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, parts, and petroleum. The situation was so bad that Cuba posted the worst growth in per capita food production in...