Developing agriculture, forestry and natural resource management to enhance rural development are important components of a four-year cooperation agreement signed here today between Belarus and FAO. The FAO Country Programming Framework for the Republic of Belarus was signed in a ceremony at the Ministry of Agriculture by Deputy Minister of Agriculture...

The present paper is the product of research on cooperatives in Georgia carried out by Elkana from August to October 2016 in the framework of the AGROinform-led IFAD-funded project “Promoting inclusive horticultural value chains in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Moldova” The goal of the research is to provide valuable information...

This fourth edition of Agrinnovation magazine gives you a round-up of EIP-AGRI news, events and stories from the past year. With food production and short supply chains as its main theme, this edition includes inspirational ideas from Greece, Estonia, Poland, the UK and many more. It also covers opportunities under...

Les relations entre le dromadaire et l’oasis relèvent d’une certaine ambiguïté car le dromadaire, animal du nomade par excellence, marque les territoires désertiques de sa mobilité alors que l’oasis est, par essence, un point d’attache. Si, au cours de l’histoire, le dromadaire ne pénétrait en ville que pour les étapes...

Berry production and the development of rural areas and livelihoods will be the focus of two new FAO projects starting soon in Moldova. One of the projects will help build capacities in the area of agriculture and rural development policy – for policy makers, local officials and others who will be...

The objectives of this paper are to understand the evolution of family farming in a mountainous area of Southern Albania after the fall of communism in 1991 and to identify the socio-economic developments that characterize this territory in very last years. According to primary or secondary historical data, there is...

The potential offered by social innovation to improve the livelihoods of remote forest-dependent communities will be at the centre of discussions during a special session of the 125th Anniversary Congress of the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), to be held in Freiburg, Germany, from the 18th to the...

Seventy percent of food worldwide is produced by smallholders, including family farms and private households. Connecting those small producers to processing facilities and markets can be a challenge but it is possible, as an international conference in Astana last week made clear. In Kazakhstan, the country’s 1.6 million private households and...

Tajikistan’s roughly 3.8 million hectares of pasture – almost 29 percent of its total land area – feed the country’s meat-producing livestock. But these natural resources, particularly year-round pastures near villages, are being depleted and degraded. Since 2013, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have been working with...

Following the first workshop on this topic in December 2016, FAO is convening a broader circle of countries to discuss agriculture’s place in the 2030 Agenda on sustainable development. The overall objective of the event is to help member countries nationalize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to raise awareness amongst...

The burning Autumn sun is rolling on the cretes of Anatolia. On the arid outskirts of the village of Tahtacıörencik, the hens of the Kır Çocukları eco-project are witnessing curious activities. A group of about 40 visitors, including 12 foreigners, is invading the poultry breeding farm.  Perched on the fence,...

Rural development has an important role to play in the sustainable development of Georgia. Evidence from the experience of European Rural Development Programmes confirms the role that rural development can play in terms of increasing the welfare of rural populations and reducing the economic imbalance between rural and urban areas....

Currants, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. Eye-catching and delicious, these and other berries could be a key to greater prosperity for rural areas of Moldova. “Berries of Moldova” – a national conference taking place in Chisinau tomorrow – is organized with technical support from FAO. The event will bring together donors, international experts,...

The forest sector has a great potential to generate jobs and income, support livelihoods and contribute to rural development by suppling goods and maintaining forest ecosystem services. The forest sector is expected to play an important role in the emerging green economy in the pan-European region. The transition to a...

Kazakhstan continued its pursuit of organic agriculture production, certification and marketing this week as it welcomed a group of FAO experts to Astana. FAO investment support officer Kairat Nazhmidenov, senior natural resources officer and key FAO expert in organic Nadia Scialabba, and organic legislation expert and legal consultant Raushan Zhazykbayeva were...

With consumer demand for organic foods on the rise, FAO is working with Central Asian countries to develop their capacities for organic agriculture. A three-day international conference on the topic opens here today, with leading experts and other players taking part. Organized by Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources in...

Viticulture, the science of growing grapes, dates back as far as 8 000 years in Armenia. The country has a favourable setting for grape production and it is a lucrative business even today. But not paying enough attention to preserving genetic resources and maintaining healthy vines could jeopardize future good prospects...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources of the Republic of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO) is organizing an International Conference on development of organic agriculture in Central Asia during 22-24 August 2017. The theoretical sessions of the Conference will be...

The Kick-off Meeting of the Regional Expert Advisory Working Group (Agro-Biodiversity in the SEE countries was held in the period 13th -14th, July 2017 in Skopje, Macedonia. The kick-off meeting served as a preparatory meeting for setting up the structure and technical framework of the Regional Expert Advisory Group on Agro-Biodiversity...

Raising awareness, understanding and interest in land consolidation is the objective of a nationwide campaign being conducted here by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy. Since the start of November, three public awareness workshops on land consolidation have been held, in the cities of Gostivar, Bitola and...