The TheruBeedi Seed Bank and Producer Group facilitate informal benefit sharing mechanisms that can be very effective in protecting biodiversity and encouraging farmers to contribute to the genetic pool. The approaches include offering family farmers incentives to cultivate traditional or rare varieties, providing assistance in the marketing of their products,...

Food crops such as rice, maize and cabbage are grown over two-thirds of Korea’s total arable land. Damage inflicted by soil-borne insects threatens yields, with losses of up to 30%. The proliferation of these pests is the result of a lack of safe, feasible control methods. This project aims to...

The Soil Health Card scheme is an initiative launched by the Government of India in February 2015. A soil health card is intended to provide each farmer with information regarding the status of his/her soil as well as providing advice on fertilizer usage and other nutrient recommendations that maintain soil health in the long...

The agriculture sector is the largest employer in developing countries of Asia and in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Smallholders, landless and marginal farmers and their families, who comprise the main category of the rural self-employed in the sector, face a large number of economic, demographic, social and technical constraints. Strengthening...

To commemorate the International Year of Family Farming, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nation (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, organised an Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation at Chennai in August 2014. Several background papers were prepared for...

Las Kuatras Marias farm is located in San Narcisso village, near Victoria City in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, where rice monoculture is the main source of income for family farmers in the area. Applying an extensive knowledge of indigenous and organic practices, the farm is strategically structured in distinct components that...

Despite many agricultural and socio-economic studies conducted in other parts of Indonesia, there is a scientific gap among researches focused on small scale farmers in North Sumatra. The article presented is based on the Sustainable livelihoods framework established in the 1990’s by the Department for International Development (DFID) with special...

The E-agriculture strategy guide is an attempt to provide countries with a framework to develop their national e-agriculture strategies. E-agriculture strategies will help to rationalize both financial and human resources, and address ICT opportunities for the agricultural sector in a more holistic and efficient manner. This will help improve the...

Released exclusively in Bangkok, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will launch its 2016 Asia-Pacific regional report on food insecurity entitled “Investing in a Zero Hunger Generation.” This substantive report, the first of its kind since the introduction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), examines the present state of...

A farmers' community in India learned, through the FAO Community Animal Health Workers training programme, how to rear poultry and face the poultry diseases problems.

Rice and ducks have been ‘good friends’ of farmers in the Mekong Delta for a long time. Traditionally, farmers in the Mekong Delta planted rice paddies and raised ducks by releasing them into the paddy fields after the harvest to eat residues. A Japanese farmer, Mr. Takao Furuno, took this traditional...

This practice describes golden roles for dairy production, including; feeding milk cows, calf rearing, breeding adult cows, heat stress management, animal health, producing quality milk, and housing dairy stock.

A new agreement, signed by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva and Mongolia's agriculture minister Purev Sergelen today, will strengthen the partnership between FAO and Mongolia on South-South and Triangular Cooperation -- a form of development partnership that boosts countries' agricultural capacity by linking their policy makers and producers with...

Life of Nomadic pastoralists from Mongolia

An Indonesian smallholder farmer started his own rice-fish business after an FAO training programme on rice-fish farming.

FAO has been implementing Regional Initiatives as a mechanism to help deliver its work at country and regional levels since 2013. The Regional Initiatives emphasize impact through well focused activities that address the most important challenges in food and nutrition security at country and regional levels. Together with its country,...

Asia’s position in the global food market tilts heavily towards demand due to its huge population and limited agricultural resources. With only one-fifth of the world’s agricultural land, the region hosts more than half of the global population. Asia has achieved significant production improvements over the last 50 years but...

Food matters to Pacific Islanders. Throughout the region, family farming and fishing is a way of life, cultural meaning, and a source of enduring food security which has ensured the health and wealth of Pacific Island communities. However urbanization and the transition of the population out of subsistence production have...

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) awarded the Royal Order of Sahametrei to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Cambodia for outstanding services to the King and the people of Cambodia. The award, signed by Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen, is given in recognition...

This study is undertaken to quantify the benefits of contract farming (CF) on farmers’ income in a case where new market opportunities are emerging for smallholder farmers in Nepal. CF is emerging as an important form of vertical coordination in the agrifood supply chain. The prospect for CF in a...