The policy brief reviews the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrants working in agri-food systems and their families in rural areas of origin. It points out some of the policy implications and presents key policy recommendations. Measures affecting the movement of people (internally and internationally) and resulting labour shortages,...

Organic agriculture is an integrated production management system that promotes and enhances agroecosystem health, including biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It emphasizes the use of natural inputs (i.e. mineral and products derived from plants) and the renunciation of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

The objective of implementing the slope agriculture land technology (SALT) is to stabilize the slope and improve the terrace or the contours in order to control soil erosion along the slopes and improve soil fertility. This practice describes how to implement the SALT method.

The technology was developed in collaboration with farmers in the Teso farming system of Uganda. It comprises of the development of appropriate animal-drawn implements, primarily for weeding but also for ridging (sweet potatoes), line planting and lifting (groundnuts). These implements are now being manufactured locally. Impact assessments showed that adoption...

Amélie Dennebouy has challenged gender stereotypes to become a successful mussel entrepreneur in Pénestin, France. “ We don’t employ women!” Just how many times Amélie Dennebouy, a mussel farm worker, heard that phrase since she began working in the sector at age 17, it would be impossible to say. “Ten years...

Confronted with plans for an offshore wind farm, the fishers of the Bay of Saint Brieuc in France are clamouring for their rights to be respected and guaranteed. It is important to highlight that the millions of people who, to this day, still rely on ocean space for their lives and...

Dentro de la construcción de la línea de base tecnológica y socioeconómica de la producción de hortalizas, se consideró como uno de los elementos más importantes que afecta la competitividad y la inocuidad de los productos hortícolas la presencia de plagas en el sentido amplio, lo cual afecta la sanidad...

The dynamics of the size distribution in growing and dividing rod-shaped bacteria can change depending on the perspective through which the cell population is observed. From the perspective of single-cell lineages, only one descendant is followed after each division, while in population snapshots all of the offspring is considered. In...

Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 include strong restrictions of movement which dramatically change daily lives and impact agricultural livelihoods. These measures are particularly difficult for the rural poorest and most vulnerable, who tend to hold jobs and occupations which cannot be performed remotely. Many of the world’s poor...

A través de este documento, nos interesa proponer una reflexión crítica en torno a la situación actual de impacto mundial de la pandemia del Coronavirus o Covid-19 y su relación con la vida y territorios indígenas, frente a la cual ha quedado en evidencia una serie de situaciones que, a...

Les bananes sont l’aliment de base des populations dans de nombreuses régions d’Afrique de l’Est. Elles constituent une bonne source de potassium, lequel intervient dans l’équilibre des fluides du corps et un aliment idéal pour les enfants en bas âge, les invalides et les personnes atteintes par le VIH/sida. En...

Natural vegetative strips (NVS) are narrow live barriers comprising naturally occurring grasses and herbs. Wide strips are left unploughed to allow vegetation to grow and to slow surface runoff. Natural terraces form over time as a result of the eroded soil accumulation on the strips. The vegetation on the established...

Rodents consume food in the field as well as in storage. Their contamination of stored food and ability to spread diseases causes them to cut across both the natural resources and health sectors. Research in Mozambique and in South Africa found that people have little understanding of the ecology of...

Home gardens (HGs) are hotspots of in situ agrobiodiversity conservation. We conducted a case study in Tabasco, México, on HG owners’ knowledge of HG ecological, economical and socio-cultural multifunctionality and how it relates to agrobiodiversity as measured by species richness and diversity. The term multifunctionality knowledge refers to owners’ knowledge...

Las mujeres rurales enfrentan grandes brechas y barreras en la región en materia de acceso y control de activos rurales como la tierra y los capitales financieros; de distribución y de reconocimiento del trabajo productivo y reproductivo; de equidad en el nivel de ingresos; en la toma de decisiones; en...

As part of a national action plan to manage animal genetic resources in Burundi, we characterized smallholders’ goat production systems and assessed the effect of Boer crossbreeding on animal body measures. To that end, 319 farmers were surveyed in the five agro-ecological zones of Burundi and the zootechnical measures of...

En su intervención, José Mujica, Ex Presidente del Uruguay, destacó la importancia de la agricultura familiar en nuestra región, incluyendo su historia, su trayectoria y su futuro. Mujica enfatizó la importancia de la voluntad política para proteger los derechos y habilidades de los agricultores familiares e hizo un llamado a...

Background Non-centrifugal sugar cane (NCS) is currently considered a marginal natural sweetener. The nutritional and functional compound found in NCS allows it to be considered a superfood. Research on this product has been evolving from the improvement of sugar cane varieties and their energy efficiency process assessment. In this decade, the...

The FAO elearning Academy supports Member Countries, through capacity development interventions and elearning courses. These courses are offered free of charge, as a global public good and were created to transfer know-how,  skills and competencies using diverse methodologies such as self-paced elearning courses, blended learning programmes, massive open online courses...

Maruca vitrata is a major pest of cowpea, resulting in 20 to 80 percent yield losses in West Africa. A pheromone lure and suitable trap developed in Benin and Ghana has successfully trapped male moths. From these trappings a threshold has been calculated to provide farmers with the optimum time for...