This video presents a recording of the dialogue on The Politics of Knowledge, and the evidence for agroecology in Africa held on 19 May 2022.  The event was co-organized by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, IPES-Food,  Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP), Groundswell International, Agroecology Fund, and Global Alliance for the Future of Food, and the technical assistance of...

Este trabalho objetiva relatar a experiência vivida por agricultoras e pela Assessoria Técnica Continuada, a partir da utilização das Cadernetas Agroecológicas no âmbito do projeto Pró-Semiárido, coordenado pela Companhia de Desenvolvimento e Ação Regional, do Estado da Bahia, em parceria com o Fundo Internacional de Desenvolvimento Agrícola. O trabalho teve,...

Pests and diseases can severely reduce crop yields. However, the use of synthetic agrochemicals to control them threatens human and environmental health, by polluting our soils and water systems, causing diseases, and killing beneficial organisms. Management of pests and diseases in organic farming requires not only renouncing synthetic agrochemicals, but...

During a virtual ceremony in 2021, the FAO Director-General, presented the Margarita Lizarraga Medal, to Margaret Nakato. During a virtual ceremony on the 19th of November 2021, the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu  presented the Margarita Lizarraga Medal, to Margaret Nakato of the Katosi Women Development Trust in Uganda, whom he praised...

All 27-EU Member States had to submit their Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) national Strategic Plans (SP) by 1 January 2022 to the European Commission (EC). As of 3 March, one country has still not submitted its two CAP Strategic Plans (Belgium for Wallonia and Flanders). With this evaluation of the...

Ecological organic farming provides many benefits for health, the environment and societal welfare, but is generally perceived as not productive enough to meet growing food demands. However, research has demonstrated that farm productivity on well-managed organic farms can match that of conventional – this requires active, holistic management practices, e.g.,...

This monthly e-newsletter gives a bird’s eye view of all the exciting updates from Access Agriculture, a world-leading organisation for quality agricultural training videos in international and local languages, working across the Global South.

PUEBLA, MÉXICO — El mezcal, la tradicional bebida espirituosa de México hecha con agave, ha capturado los paladares nacionales y del extranjero. Sin embargo, al mismo tiempo que se dispara su popularidad, emerge una amarga consecuencia: la cantidad de desecho generado por la producción de mezcal y los riesgos que...

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) has collaborated with partners to organize the first trailblazing three-day continental convening on AFRICAN AGROECOLOGICAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND TERRITORIAL MARKETS in Munyonyo, Uganda, from May 24th to 26th, 2022. The gathering brought together actors from over 30 countries, with over 130 persons in attendance in person and...

CounterPoint is PANAP’s policy paper on global and regional issues related to people’s food sovereignty and elimination of pesticide harms. The latest CounterPoint focuses on how agroecology must advance in the context of widespread landlessness and massive corporate land grabbing.

Bananas are one of the most commonly grown fruit crops in Malaysia, but local production has declined in recent years. Through site visits and interviews with 74 smallholder banana farmers, this study sought to know the current situation of the local smallholder banana industry, the challenges faced in commercial banana...

This factsheet introduces soil fertility and health, explains how the holistic organic farming approach improves soil fertility, provides some practices which contribute to improving soil health and help meet the nutrient requirement of crops, animals and humans. The information is based on long-term experiments and on-farm research conducted in the...

The 2nd thematic group (TG) meeting shared Member State policy experiences aimed at growing the organic value chain and identified potential areas of intervention that can support collective actions across the organic value chain and in doing so strengthen the role of organic farmers.

Profitability is a key factor affecting farmers’ choices. Ecological organic farming provides many benefits for health, the environment and societal welfare, but is generally percieved to be not as profitable as conventional due to lower yields and high labour costs. However, current research has demonstrated that farm profitability on actively-managed...

Ensuring poultry and pig welfare has become a crucial issue for low-input outdoor and organic farms, currently threatened in Europe by the international sanitary and economic crisis contexts. The PPILOW project helps providing keys for proposing and testing strategies and practices favouring welfare in these production systems. In this 6...

La Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario (FCA-UNR) se ubica en la zona núcleo de la región pampeana por lo cual su evolución institucional ha estado signada por un sinnúmero de políticas públicas orientadas a impulsar y desarrollar un modelo productivo agroexportador. En tal sentido, y...

Some 30 years ago, eminent anthropologist Paul Richards described the practices of smallholder farmers as a type of performance, similar to theatre or a musical act. Farmers acquire skills and competence through practice, rehearsal and improvisation. I have recently learned that the same applies to the marketing of farm produce....

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) virtually launched a new booklet, "Taking Agroecology to Scale - Learning from Natural Farming in India," based on a strong working relationship formed with RySS, which resulted in 15 online webinars on scaling natural farming. The booklet summarizes and reflects on the...

It never ceases to amaze me why it’s so difficult to buy locally produced food that is tasty, seasonal, fresh and chemical-free directly from farmers. Why do government policies and programmes always seem to favour big agro-business and supermarket culture? It’s Thursday. I’m on my way to collect this week’s food...

A few decades ago, a former US Secretary of Agriculture told farmers they should get big or get out. A glance through agricultural census data since then would appear to show that this is exactly what farmers have done – gotten bigger, and many have had to get out. But...