In agriculture, pests are organisms that significantly interfere with the productivity of crops or animals. In conventional agriculture, farmers often use chemical pesticides to manage pests. These can be effective at keeping pests away but they come with negative side effects. Chemical pesticides are costly, damaging to the environment and...

In Mali, agriculture is the main source of employment. Over 80% of the population is engaged in agriculture that is mostly carried out by small farmers with income of less than US$1 per day. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is an important cereal grain used as food and animal fodder...

In Noord-Brabant, a region in South-West Netherlands, Govert van Dis and his wife Phily Brooijmans are running an organic arable farm of around 100 hectares. They run the farm together and actively follow innovations in agroecology. Crops are grown without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, therefore crop rotation...

According to the World Bank, since 2005 Zambia has experienced impressive economic growth at an average of around 6-7 % per year, although this has decreased to less than 3 percent in recent years.  This decline has been driven by drought and a fall in the price of copper, one...

Filho, neto e bisneto de produtor rural, nascido e criado na roça, Valdir conta que era “veneneiro puro” até receber assistência da Emater-DF para dar início à transição agroecológica. As políticas públicas da Secretaria Especial de Agricultura Familiar e Desenvolvimento Agrário (SEAD) e o Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos (PAA) contribuem...

Organic and eco-sustainable farming is particularly suited to farms situated within parks, because it does not harm local ecosystems as it does not use pesticides and promotes biodiversity, improving biological links and creating ideal habitats for animal life. It also promotes grants that reward farmers for acting as “guardians/stewards of...

Over half of the world’s land area is grazed in various ways: in mixed farming systems, ranching, by wildlife and through pastoralism. Pastoralism is practised mainly on the grasslands that cover about a quarter of the world’s surface (Follet & Reed 2010). It is also closely associated with mobile herds...

What started out as an aspiration to be self sufficient, has evolved into a vision to grow and support young farmers into a profession that has enormous reward, alongside huge risk, immense challenges and a great deal of fulfillment. What’s more Joel can see the future in small-scale farming and...

Located about 70 km north east from Hanoi, Vietnam, the villages of Xuan An and Ngoc Son (Bac Giang province) include 285 households. Rice is the main staple crop. Local rice and vegetable production strongly relies on synthetic inputs specifically Nitrogen fertilizers and pesticides which increase production costs and raise...

The profile features farmers in New Zealand who came to the idea of regenerative agriculture due to an awareness of the ecological limits being breached by New Zealand agriculture. They believe that while farming is responsible for many of the environmental problems faced by their country, they also believe that better...

A sigla PANC significa Plantas Alimentícias Não Convencionais. Em outras palavras, quer dizer “todas as plantas que poderíamos consumir, mas não consumimos”. Imagine todas as plantas comestíveis que existem. Uma pequena parcela delas nós conhecemos, produzimos e comemos no dia a dia, sendo chamadas de plantas alimentícias convencionais. As que...

La Asociación Nacional de Empresas Comercializadoras de Productores del Campo (ANEC) was founded in 1995 in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). ANEC  offers member farmers, a diverse array of small and medium commercial grain farmers from 17 different Mexican states. Initially, ANEC assisted in the...

Small towns are an essential but often-neglected element of rural landscapes and food systems. They perform a number of essential functions, from market nodes to providers of services and goods and non-farm employment to their own population as well as that of the wider surrounding region.  In demographic terms, they...

Soils are a non-renewable resource on which 95% of our food supply depends. Short-sighted chemical fertilizer applications in conventional farming are depleting soils at an alarming rate. Instead of using potent chemicals that degrade soil, organic farmers continuously give back to the soil, maintaining soil health and fertility for future...

Farmers in Kazakhstan have been increasing the land area devoted to growing oilseed and pulse crops – and it makes good sense from several viewpoints. An FAO-organized seminar on “Pulses and oilseeds: prospects for development” was held here today, one of many forward-looking events on offer this year at Astana...

A partir de la decisión institucional de avanzar en el fomento de la agroecología, INDAP organiza el Primer Simposio Nacional de Agroecología para la Agricultura Familiar. Su principal propósito es promover la práctica agroecológica como un modelo de producción sustentable para la Agricultura Familiar Campesina (AFC) de Chile, generando una...

Soils are a non-renewable resource on which 95% of our food supply depends. Short-sighted chemical fertilizer applications in conventional farming are depleting soils at an alarming rate. Instead of using potent chemicals that degrade soil, organic farmers continuously give back to the soil, maintaining soil health and fertility for future...

All the information from the EIP-AGRI Focus Group on Ecological Focus Areas at a glance

The report reviews the history and construction of the National Policy on Agroecology and Organic Production in Brazil (Política Nacional de Agroecologia e Produção Orgânica no Brasil, Pnapo), a policy that originated from the claims and initiatives from the sovil society and was collectively built. Thanks to the newly created spaces...

Progress towards gender equality is key to meeting global goals of eradicating poverty and eliminating hunger and malnutrition. Women make important contributions to agriculture and rural livelihoods and play a vital role in the care and reproduction of households and communities. However, persistent gender inequalities, such as unequal access to...