While climate change and extreme weather events are impacting the environment in many ways, agriculture and food production in Asia and the Pacific are among those hardest hit and must be first in line to defend, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today. Droughts, floods and other natural disasters...

Bangkok, Thailand, FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), today re-affirmed their close collaboration on technical cooperation work in the region during an annual review of the programme. The annual review process was “a very valuable occasion that will...

FAO has been recently approved two projects to strengthen community-fisheries in Tonga and Samoa. The aim of the projects is to strengthen the technical capacity for both countries to improve and streamline their community-based fisheries management programmes. These programmes play an integral role in ensuring the effective management of coastal fisheries...

With the effects of climate change and extreme weather events disproportionately affecting people in the Pacific, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the support of the Marshall Islands government is providing emergency aid to some of the Marshall Islands remote atolls hit hardest by drought. In...

Within the scope outlined in the generic scoping report for the regional and subregional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services (decision IPBES-3/1, annex III), particular challenges found across the Asia-Pacific region include climate change (particularly sea-level rise, increased intensity of extreme storm events, ocean acidification and glacier retreat), population growth,...

Champasack, Laos – In recent years, the shed house was introduced to farmers as an alternative technology for growing vegetables during rainy season because the shed house is roofed with transparent plastic. However, due to the use of plastic, the temperature in the house increases, which is not suitable for...

Pacific Islands – Today, if you talk to farmers’ organisations, government agricultural officers or agricultural development practitioners in the Pacific, there is a good chance you are going to hear them talking about value chains. In fact, it is likely that you will also hear farmers, exporters, and agro-processors also...

The lack of recognition by the state continues to cast women in fishing outside the net in Sri Lanka. While increasingly, around the globe, women’s participation in fisheries is being captured in government statistical records, the data on active fishers compiled by the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Sri...

Innovative boat clinics bring health and hope to thousands of men, women and children, among India’s poorest, who live along the mighty Brahmaputra river. As the monsoon rages, floodwaters ravage the remote island of Lamba Sapori in Dhemaji district in the northeastern state of Assam in India. Trapped in their waterlogged...

Under Suman Singh’s leadership, women in Madhubani, India, gain greater control over their lives. Women in inland fisheries in the Madhubani district of Bihar, India, started organizing way back in the year 1999, first registering a district level fisherwomen’s cooperative, and then cooperatives at the block or sub-district level throughout Madhubani....

The benefits of mixed methods are well recognised. Using mixed methods, researchers are able to overcome shortcomings inherent in individual methods while enhancing the validity and reliability of their research findings. Mixed methods are commonly used in cross-sectional studies – to answer research questions, and/or explore contemporary social issues. However,...

In the villages of Samrong Tong, district of Kampong Speu province, Cambodia, women vegetable farmers are at the forefront of promoting agroecology. In this short documentary, watch how the Women Organic Vegetable Producer Group, with the support of the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), are able to...

Sex-segregated employment data in the recently released State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 report points to the need for better and more standardised data collection.  July 2018 witnessed the launch of ‘The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018’ (SOFIA 2018)—the flagship report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)...

30th November 2017. While scientific terms for it were still being confirmed and relayed on land, hundreds of fishworkers at sea were already hit by the violent terror of a deadly cyclonic storm. More than 300 lives were lost, either battling Ockhi, or in the deathly silence after—tragic conquerors of...

The present study deals with the issue of bio-briquette fuel produced from specific agriculture residues, namely bamboo fiber (BF) and sugarcane skin (SCS). Both materials originated from Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and were subjected to analysis of their suitability for such a purpose. A densification process using...

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

The efforts of Department of Fisheries (DOF) to promote small-scale aquaculture as "Farmer to Farmer Extension Approach (FTF)" through the Project for Small-scale Aquaculture Extension for Promotion of Livelihood of Rural Communities in Central Dry Zone (SAEP in CDZ). The project activities are not only to promote farmer's aquaculture...

Action research by the University of Sussex is bringing fishermen and scientists together to track wind, and waves and save lives. Seen from the air, Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala state in south India, looks like a magic carpet – a long strip of golden sand separating a vast green...

The Asia-Pacific region is undergoing rapid change and the food systems1 that produce and deliver food to its consumers are not exempt from these trends. Some of the challenges confronting these systems are longstanding and generally familiar, but remain important nonetheless. For example, regional and global populations continue to grow...