Growing sustainable tropical crops in an outermost region  of the European Union: that’s what Julien Villard has been doing since 2016. He left his job as a civil engineer on the European mainland and became a farmer in French Guiana. He set up Villandia Farm, 3 hectares of land where...

INTERVIEW WITH THE NEW DEAN By Klára Jiřičná In March 2021, Prof. Patrick Van Damme became the second dean of the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (FTA) but the first dean ever as a foreign national in the history of the Czech University of Life Sciences. A professor in tropical agronomy, Patrick Van...

The impact of COVID 19 on food security in Africa has been among the most discussed subjects of the year 2020. Most of the reports were alarming. The headlines put Africa on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Indeed, the pandemic hit Africa when the continent was already under...

“What we have seen is that over time now, a number of crops that we equate with southern areas are also being at least tested in the Czech Republic.   “An obvious example which has, of course, been here for some time is grapes to make wine. In Medieval Time it was...

Agroecology has been defined based on three interdependent dimensions: as a practice, as a scientific approach, and as a social movement. As a social practice, it is expressed in the various ways in which peasant family farming and indigenous and traditional peoples and communities organize their work for the diversified...

Este es el segundo conversatorio, parte del Ciclo Hacia una transformación agroecológica, el cual busca contribuir a generar claridad sobre la transformación agroecológica y cómo abordarla a partir de las experiencias locales, por medio de un diálogo abierto y horizontal con agricultores/as familiares de pequeña escala y base agroecológica, y con...

Explore the diverse work done by the FiBL Group (FiBL Switzerland, FiBL Germany, FiBL Austria, FiBL France, the Hungarian ÖMKi and the Brussels based FiBL Europe) performs on both national and international level. Engage with FiBL experts, giving insights into their activities and latest developments on organic and sustainable production,...

One way of looking at organic and hydroponics is to see them each as valuable assets in the sustainable farming toolbox. They are both resource efficient ‘closed-loop’ growing systems, that deliver important environmental and societal benefits. But organic farming and hydroponics (where food crops are grown without soil, usually in nutrient infused water)...

Even bees and their hives were not protected against the shells and bombs during the last aggression on the Gaza Strip in May 2021. Samar Al-Baa is a member of the Urban Women Agripreneurs Forum (UWAF) and is a beekeeper. Her bee farm is the only source of income for...

One of the latest results is a new, autotetraploid genotype of thyme with a higher content of essential oils. The concentration of thymol, important monoterpenoid phenol found in the oil of thyme, increased by 18%. Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L., Lamiaceae) is used as a medicinal plant in the treatment of headaches, diarrhea,...

Organic agriculture is practised in 187 countries, and 72.3 million hectares ofagricultural land were managed organically by at least 3.1 million farmers. The global sales of organic food and drink reached more than 106 billion euros in 2019. The 22nd edition of The World of Organic Agriculture, published by the Research...

The 2021 COFI Declaration for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture aims to acknowledge the achievements of the fisheries and aquaculture in the past 25 years, and to gather collective momentum in tackling the challenges and opportunities to secure the long-term sustainability of the sector. We need to take action to ensure...

This expansion to cover all themes of organic agriculture marks a major milestone in the development of the multilingual Organic Farm Knowledge platform, which aspires to become the European reference hub for practical knowledge on organic farming, thus contributing significantly to the goal that 25% of the European Union’s farmland...

Esta publicación se abordan las principales problemáticas en el Corredor Seco, una franja de territorio clasificada como bosque seco tropical o trópico seco, que se extiende entre los países de Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador y Guatemala. En el Corredor Seco habitan más de diez millones de personas que...

The global syndemic can be read from both poles of food systems: on the one hand, agricultural production is carried out on large scales, based on the intensive use of artificial inputs, such as agrochemicals, hormones, and antibiotics; on the other, the consumption of ultra-processed foods and the culturing of deeply unhealthy...

Agroecology is a farming approach that is inspired by natural ecosystems, combines local and scientific knowledge, and focuses on the interactions between plants, animals, humans and the environment. Given the outsize contributions of conventional agriculture to climate change and biodiversity loss, there is a growing recognition that the global food...

On October the 16th, we celebrate 25 years of envisioning food sovereignty. This 25-year celebration and reflections are happening at a time when the planet and humanity is facing unprecedented crisis upon crisis. Climate change (heat waves, droughts, floods etc.) ravages the planet and biodiversity loss at catastrophic levels. Pollution...

The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) will hold six regional consultations between September and November 2021. These consultations will contribute to the preparation of the Voluntary Guidelines (VGs) on Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Empowerment (GEWE) in the Context of Food Security and Nutrition, in anticipation of a final...

Food system transformation is needed to address the hundreds of millions of people without adequate access to food or water for a healthy life. Nutrition and malnutrition are closely linked to water for food, sanitation and hygiene. With 30 percent of the world’s population living in water-stressed environments, the impacts...

The interest of researchers has been more and more focused on identifying adsorption materials for pollutant removal with a specific interest in agriculture waste. It is noteworthy that many agricultural wastes are modified in different ways to improve the porosity and surface area of the material. Activation, carbonisation and grafting...