The health conscious urbanites are moving towards growing their own food. Starting as a hobby, urban farming is evolving as a necessary means to address issues of food security, physical and emotional well being. This calls for improved access to information and intensive knowledge exchange through diverse and emerging media. Urbanisation...

The paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the changes witnessed in the forest sector in China during the last three decades and the key drivers that have contributed to the country’s forest transition. Clearly, such a transition is an outcome of the convergence of several factors, including the emergence of...

Over centuries, ethnic minority communities in the north of Vietnam have developed complex farming systems well-adapted to their environments. Much of this is based on indigenous knowledge concerned with adapting to locally-available resources and more recently enhancing resiliency to climatic risk. This article draws from data gathered with mixed qualitative...

Over the past few decades nutrition transition has occurred in Pacific Islands Countries (PICS), influencing the health profile of Pacific Islands populations and resulting in significant rates of diet related noncommunicable diseases (DR-NCD). In most PICS, including Fiji, imported processed foods, in particular refined rice, flour products, sugar, fatty meats,...

The sustainable development of cooperatives is essential to agricultural sustainability and is determined mainly by cooperation longevity. The risk sharing and benefit distribution mechanisms are important governance arrangements that affect cooperation longevity in member-heterogeneous cooperatives. However, the relationship between cooperatives’ risk sharing and benefit distribution arrangements and cooperation longevity is...

Urban spaces can be innovatively used for food production. They can help city dwellers rethink their connection with food ecosystems and land in the process. Educational institutions provide a unique opportunity conducive to integrating food security as part of its curriculum as well as outreach activities. The IIT Gandhinagar organic farm...

Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) is a package of practices that could improve the sustainability of smallholder farm productivity and profitability. However, existing extension systems are unable to facilitate widespread adoption to have the impact necessary to meet food security and livelihood requirements. This paper examines the utility of ‘Innovation...

The participation of the stakeholders, especially the beneficiaries of public policy, has become an essential part of the policy development process. In the past, the decision-making process failed to include stakeholders who are most affected by the policies that were being crafted then. This resulted in “Type III errors” or...

This policy brief is one in a series led by Chulalongkorn University with support from the Office of the Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand, in partnership with FAO. The series was initiated to support the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Work Plan on Education, 2016–2020 implementation while...

Farmers of coastal Tamil Nadu are compelled to grow rice despite its low returns, as rice alone has the unique feature of withstanding water stagnation for a longer period of time. Integrating fish culture and poultry rearing in rice helped farmers in 3 coastal districts in Tamil Nadu to double their...

Ma Thi Ninh thought farming would be relatively easy. The Yen Duong area of Viet Nam where she lives has excellent, arable land and offers many sought-after products, including organic sticky rice, seasonal vegetables and bamboo used for traditional handicraft products. But once she started to farm and trade in...

The community of Bunlap, which a Kustomary Area in South Pentecost, Vanuatu is building its capacity and diversity in agroforestry production thanks to the Integrated Sustainable land and Coastal Management (ISLCM)/FAO project. In the second phase of the Tropical Cyclone (TC) Harold Livelihood Recovery Program for South Pentecost, the project team...

Krishi Vigyan Kendras have been instrumental in helping farmers adopt integrated systems on the farm, thereby helping them produce more and earn more. Lyngrah’s farm, now a model farm, serves as an example of such support provided by KVK. Shri Wallam Kupar Lyngrah, a dedicated progressive and innovative farmer, hails from...

The area of Bamyan in central Afghanistan is located right in the middle of what was known as the Silk Road and used to be a strategic resting point for travellers and merchants. It was meeting point of cultures and once a hub of Buddhism, but today it is more...

Cuando las asociaciones locales de campesinos son debidamente capacitadas y empoderadas, pueden desempeñar un papel fundamental en la gestión de riesgos. En el 2007, la Ley Nacional de Cooperativas de Campesinos fue adoptada en China, estableciendo un marco institucional sólido para el desarrollo de cooperativas agropecuarias a nivel local. Sin...

China and India are the major organic agriculture producers in Asia. But other Asian countries too are working well to increase their share in the global organic market. Some countries worth mentioning are Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand, which are making systematic efforts to promote organic agriculture in their own ways....

You can convert garden waste into a rich garden resource. This video explains how Nasira Habib does it in her home garden.  

The Fijian Government’s agenda and strategic priorities – as informed by their international and national commitments – end up the shaping Fijian food systems, and the diets of Fijians. This agenda influences policy decisions and can either support or deter Fijian food systems from providing affordable and healthy diets for...

Naning Suprawati is the eldest daughter in a family of farmers and while she never argued with her father, she had always known that she wanted something different than the two options her father laid out for her. Suprawati went on to major in education in university but when she started...

The 2020 report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the Asia and Pacific region, provides an update on progress towards the 2030 targets (SDGs and WHA) at the regional and country level. Selected indicators look at undernourishment, food insecurity, childhood stunting, wasting and overweight, adult overweight, child...