Agrobiodiversity is the subset of biodiversity found within agricultural ecosystems. It feeds us with nutrients vital to our health. It fuels and furnishes our homes. It underpins cultural traditions. It sustains farm productivity in the face of climate change. But agrobiodiversity is rapidly being lost.  Just three crops account for half...

Global Organic Agricultural Innovations covers major innovations and research in organic agriculture from 18 countries and areas around the world. This edition showcases the diversity and robustness of the growth of organic agriculture around the world. More than seventy innovators and researchers contribute to this edition which covers themes from climate...

The Global Action Plan of the UN Decade of Family Farming (UNDFF 2019-28) recognizes the need to promote rural communication services (RCS) to advance sustainable food systems. RCS comprise demand-led communication processes, media applications and institutional arrangements to respond to the needs of family farmers and rural populations in a...

Gender Transformative Approaches address root causes of gender inequality by fostering lasting changes in decision-making and resource control, offering a strategic framework to enhance women’s empowerment in accessing and managing land and production means, as well as natural resources.

This study examines RCS trends in family farming and rural transformation in Asia and the Pacific through case studies emphasizing the need for participatory, farmercentered communication. The study concludes with recommendations for embedding RCS into family farming policies and programmes, fostering development opportunities for family farmers and rural communities in...

The interplay between infectious diseases and wildlife, people and their livelihoods has always been an intrinsic part of human existence. Until recently, however, this nexus has been minimally considered in research and policy. The need for change is increasingly recognized following the emergence of zoonotic diseases such as severe acute...

Agroecology is a promising approach that is transforming agrifood systems across the Asia-Pacific Region. Indeed, there is increasing evidence of positive results with the transition to agroecology, and these include stable yields, crop resilience, higher incomes for farmers, fishers and producers, improved nutrition and food security and enhanced biodiversity (Global...

The more pigeon peas produce secondary branches, the more pods it will produce, leading to higher yields. 6 to 7 weeks after sowing, remove the tips of the main branches. This is called nipping. After a week, use half a mug of biofertiliser per plant or add it to irrigation...

Informal trade Informal cross-border trade plays a major role in the BIMSTEC region, given the shared borders between member countries such as India with Bangladesh and Nepal. Informal trade is defined through the exchange process and consists of unrecorded trade flows that escape official statistics. “Informality” refers to the nature of the...

Mountain ecosystems, including rangelands, wetlands, peatlands and both alpine and temperate forests, are unique habitats characterised by complex geography and rich biodiversity. These ecosystems are integral to the cultures and traditions of diverse Indigenous communities, providing essential goods and services such as food, water, climate regulation and cultural aesthetics. Despite their high economic...

Sustainable food systems require mechanisms that assure consumers about the sustainability of agricultural production. Building on the existing literature on the impact of sustainability standards, this study is the first to assess the effectiveness of participatory guarantee systems (PGS) for the certification of organic produce. The study uses representative farm-level...

Flash droughts are abrupt and rapid intensification of droughts that affect agriculture, water, and ecosystems and are commonplace in South Asia. Despite their potential impact, flash drought evolution characteristics and underlying mechanisms in South Asia remain underexplored. We use a multivariate approach to analyze the onset speed, frequency, severity, duration,...

The Government of Indonesia and FAO have recognized the need for thorough analysis and modelling of Indonesia’s food systems to support food systems transformation efforts in the country. This is needed to provide a better understanding of the governance context in food systems, including the political economy dynamics influencing performance,...

Often called the Land of Rivers, Bangladesh boasts a remarkable riverine landscape that has nurtured a flourishing fisheries sector. With about 230 rivers crisscrossing it, the country is one of the world’s largest deltas along with the world’s largest flooded wetland. The fisheries industry is a vital pillarof the national...

Climate change and variability affect virtually everyone and every region of the world but the effects are nowhere more prominent than among rural marginalized communities that rely heavily on agriculture and fishing for a living and they face numerous livelihood challenges including risk posed by variability of climate. Using phenomenological...

On KIARA’s current work KIARA still does advocacy. The Indonesian government is focusing on the Blue Economy, with emphasis on massive expansion of production from marine resources, affecting the community. We have also been working on the climate crisis, especially as it relates to the sinking and drowning villages in...

Vietnam’s largest deltaic region, the Mekong Delta offers great potential for rice production and aquaculture. With an area of 747,000 hectares in 2022, it is the country’s largest shrimp-producing area. The shrimp-rice area covers nearly 190,000 hectares, accounting for 26.8 per cent of the total shrimp farming area in the...

Every corner along Japan’s long coast has a fishing port. Where there are fishing ports, there are fishing communities working diverse small-scale and coastal fisheries daily. Its beautiful coastal landscape is Japan’s identity. It is no exaggeration to say that the Fisheries Co-operative Association (FCA) system has supported such an...

W ildfires have raged across the mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalaya this year. The Indian state of Uttarakhand lost over 1,500 hectares of forest while Nepal saw hundreds of forest fires in March and over a thousand in April. As frightening and destructive as these fires have been, for over 10,000 years, everywhere from the Central...

On a rainy day in August, when the availability of fisheries resources is high in the Teesta river here, Bimal Das returned from a four-hour fishing trip with only three kg of fish. While sorting the fish from the ice slabs, a dejected Das contemplated quitting fishing to looking for...