Improved feed diversity and more resilient feed production, less dependent on soybean imports. This strategy helps to mitigate droughts effects, through an “avoidance strategy”, with production of forage during seasons less likely to be affected by such phenomenon. Other benefits include improved soil biodiversity and soil health, reduced leaching during...

Farmers are frequently facing agricultural waste production problems (which incorrect disposal may determine a damaging environmental impact) and soil fertility depletion. Sustainable valorization of crop residues could allow recovering valuable components as substrates and nutrients in microbial/enzymatic controlled processes, such as composting.

Millets have finally arrived on the global scene. With 2023 being declared as the International Year of Millets, by the United Nations, the spotlight is on millets. While half a billion people across the globe consume millets as a traditional food, it has taken decades, for it to get its...

his first book volume collects country reports produced by the AE4EU Horizon 2020 project and the European Association Agroecology Europe which involved a large number of organisations, as well as more than 25 "mappers" who conducted the work in different European countries. Among them were many members of the Agroecology...

European and world agriculture is at a critical juncture. According to the FAO, about 33% of the world’s soils are degraded, with intensive agriculture (maximising agricultural production on a given area of land with excessive use of inputs, intensive tillage and monocultures) being one of the main drivers. Biodiversity loss...

Phenological development is critical for crop adaptation. Phenology models are typically driven by temperature and photoperiod, but chickpea phenology is also modulated by soil water, which is not captured in these models. This study is aimed at evaluating the hypotheses that accounting for soil water improves (i) the prediction of...

In many parts of the world, agricultural mechanization is an underutilized means of producing food. Done sustainably, mechanization has the potential to raise productivity, improve working conditions and incomes, generate new entrepreneurial opportunities, allow for more careful crop and livestock management and reduce food losses and waste. Yet, many barriers...

Este documento recopila las experiencias de agricultores familiares y asociaciones de productores aliados del programa Mesoamérica sin Hambre AMEXCID-FAO en El Salvador, que han diversificado su producción e incrementado sus ingresos, logrando mejorar así la seguridad alimentaria y nutricional de sus familias y sus comunidades. Estas historias son un ejemplo...

Austrian Operational Group looking for alternative, environmentally friendly control methods. Wireworms, the larvae of click beetles, cause major losses in potato production across Europe. The situation in recent years seems to be worsening due to climate change as Johannes Mayer, Austrian potato farmer explains: “Wireworm damage is more significant in drier...

In northern Tanzania, recurring drought in recent years caused by climate change has put pressure on communities who make their livelihoods by keeping cattle. A group of Maasai women have turned to producing honey from beehives in the forest to generate additional income. This has enabled them to pay for...

In South Asia, the long-term provision of agro-ecosystem services is threatened by accelerating climate change and undesirable farming practices. Conservation farming could help ensure sustainable ecosystem services and food security. This study was conducted in nine purposively selected districts in west and northwest Bangladesh. Data on conservation farming practices were...

This policy brief provides recommendations on how to achieve these objectives with a focus on three key areas: 1. How to link small-scale farmers with the public plate; 2. School meals as a powerful tool to address social equity (all school children and young people), health (tackling fast-growing child obesity)...

Fiche technique sur le compostage du fumier pour en faire de l'engrais puissan. Le compostage rend les éléments nutritifs facilement disponibles pour les plantes. Il limite les risques d’asphyxie pour les plantes tout en évitant les risques de propagation des adventices, des ravageurs, des moisissures et des maladies.

En esta ficha de contexto se mencionan los aspectos importantes de la cadena de aguacate enfocados a su marco productivo, regional, económico, comercio internacional, así como sus perspectivas y tendencias frente al mercado, dando a conocer su entorno de Ciencia y Tecnología e Innovación.

Water scarcity threatens irrigated agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Knowledge of farmers’ perceptions and drivers for decision-making in view of coping with water scarcity is so far lacking but needed to improve local technologies and frame policies fostering their adoption. Here, for the first time, we investigated farmers’ perception of...

The Green Innovation Centres are part of the special initiative "One World without Hunger" of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and are implemented in the partner countries by the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The project aims to support Green Innovation Centres in promoting organic...

Livestock production is confronted with significant challenges across all dimensions of sustainability. There is an urgent need to identify sustainable livestock systems that are environmentally friendly, economically viable for farmers, and socially acceptable. To this end, diversity assessments and data-driven indicator-based sustainability assessments can be helpful tools. These two mutually...

L’installation de systèmes de collecte d’urine dans les zones urbaines au sud du Sahara rendrait ces collectes plus durables. C’est ce que prouve une étude menée par quatre chercheurs du Cirad, de l’IRD, de l’université Boubacar Ba de Tillabéri (Niger) et de Joseph K. Zerbo, de Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), publiée...

Mario Contreras, an advisor on organic coffee production in Honduras, shares his knowledge on the benefits of organic farming as well as the organic composting method used in coffee production for soil fertility. The Green Innovation Centres are part of the special initiative "One World without Hunger" of the German Federal Ministry for...

It is difficult to identify farm management practices that consistently provide greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement at different locations because effectiveness of practices is greatly influenced by climates and soils. We address this knowledge gap by identifying practices that provide abatement in eight case studies located across diverse conditions in Australian’s...