Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 include strong restrictions of movement which dramatically change daily lives and impact agricultural livelihoods. These measures are particularly difficult for the rural poorest and most vulnerable, who tend to hold jobs and occupations which cannot be performed remotely. Many of the world’s poor...

A través de este documento, nos interesa proponer una reflexión crítica en torno a la situación actual de impacto mundial de la pandemia del Coronavirus o Covid-19 y su relación con la vida y territorios indígenas, frente a la cual ha quedado en evidencia una serie de situaciones que, a...

Les bananes sont l’aliment de base des populations dans de nombreuses régions d’Afrique de l’Est. Elles constituent une bonne source de potassium, lequel intervient dans l’équilibre des fluides du corps et un aliment idéal pour les enfants en bas âge, les invalides et les personnes atteintes par le VIH/sida. En...

Natural vegetative strips (NVS) are narrow live barriers comprising naturally occurring grasses and herbs. Wide strips are left unploughed to allow vegetation to grow and to slow surface runoff. Natural terraces form over time as a result of the eroded soil accumulation on the strips. The vegetation on the established...

Rodents consume food in the field as well as in storage. Their contamination of stored food and ability to spread diseases causes them to cut across both the natural resources and health sectors. Research in Mozambique and in South Africa found that people have little understanding of the ecology of...

Home gardens (HGs) are hotspots of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. We conducted a case study in Tabasco, México, on HG owners’ knowledge of HG ecological, economical and socio-cultural multifunctionality and how it relates to agrobiodiversity as measured by species richness and diversity. The term multifunctionality knowledge refers to owners’ knowledge...

Las mujeres rurales enfrentan grandes brechas y barreras en la región en materia de acceso y control de activos rurales como la tierra y los capitales financieros; de distribución y de reconocimiento del trabajo productivo y reproductivo; de equidad en el nivel de ingresos; en la toma de decisiones; en...

As part of a national action plan to manage animal genetic resources in Burundi, we characterized smallholders’ goat production systems and assessed the effect of Boer crossbreeding on animal body measures. To that end, 319 farmers were surveyed in the five agro-ecological zones of Burundi and the zootechnical measures of...

En su intervención, José Mujica, Ex Presidente del Uruguay, destacó la importancia de la agricultura familiar en nuestra región, incluyendo su historia, su trayectoria y su futuro. Mujica enfatizó la importancia de la voluntad política para proteger los derechos y habilidades de los agricultores familiares e hizo un llamado a...

Background Non-centrifugal sugar cane (NCS) is currently considered a marginal natural sweetener. The nutritional and functional compound found in NCS allows it to be considered a superfood. Research on this product has been evolving from the improvement of sugar cane varieties and their energy efficiency process assessment. In this decade, the...

The FAO elearning Academy supports Member Countries, through capacity development interventions and elearning courses. These courses are offered free of charge, as a global public good and were created to transfer know-how,  skills and competencies using diverse methodologies such as self-paced elearning courses, blended learning programmes, massive open online courses...

Maruca vitrata is a major pest of cowpea, resulting in 20 to 80 percent yield losses in West Africa. A pheromone lure and suitable trap developed in Benin and Ghana has successfully trapped male moths. From these trappings a threshold has been calculated to provide farmers with the optimum time for...

The adoption of organic farming practices could help countries across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In December 2019, our Resilient Mountain Solutions initiative collaborated with the Agriculture Research and Development Centre, Bhutan to organize a regional symposium on “Organic agriculture: Youth engagement and enterprise...

The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on a small-scale fishing in Lorient is vividly captured in the pages of a diary maintained by a gillnetter skipper’s spouse. In March 2020, Emmanuelle Yheul-Bertin, wife of a gillnet skipper who runs a 13-metre gillnetter vessel with four men on board, began recording the...

La conferencia está asociada a la publicación de la Serie 2030: Agricultura Familiar y Transformación Rural. Debate sobre las políticas entorno a la AF y cómo se puede construir herramientas para profundizar el trabajo y el fortalecimiento de la agricultura familiar.

This work aims to contribute to the knowledge about the state of acceptance of C015 Eggplant variety, generated by Agrosavia in 2011, under the participatory plant breeding approach with farmers, who selected the material for high yields, the largest number of fruits per plant and lilac color. A study was...

The COVID-19 pandemic is also affecting agricultural census activities. Currently, 62 countries are preparing (45 countries) or have conducted (17 countries) censuses of agriculture in the WCA 2020 round. A rapid appraisal and informal consultations with national agricultural census authorities reveal that some 34 countries reported delays or suspension of several...

300 kilometers south of Tunis, in the Gulf of Gabes, women have long harvested clams to generate an income. The seasonal work is often labor intensive and poorly paid. That is why FAO, in collaboration with the Tunisian government and a local women’s association, have created a pilot project to...

Con los restaurantes y eventos cancelados, Juan Carlos pasó de criar conejos y codornices a cultivar vegetales, una habilidad que aprendió el año pasado gracias a la FAO, y que ahora sirve a un nuevo propósito durante la pandemia. Conoce su historia.

The following technology provides information on the use of aloe vera as a cross-slope barrier structure. This structure is particularly effective barrier to retain soil erosion by decreasing surface runoff and increasing soil infiltration. Aloe vera is a durable herbaceous plant, which is planted in the form of living barriers...