During Tea & Honey Tour guests travel through the wonderful lush countryside, past different provinces and tiny  communes, up into The Great Caucasus Mountain regions and past lowlands and historic towns in search of as much aroma of tea & honey as possible! Guests taste various types of honey at local farms...

For farmers in Central Asia, growing and marketing organic produce could be a rational – even promising – strategy. In some cases, they may even have an advantage over their peers in other countries.

CIHEAM and FAO invite junior and senior researchers, cooperators, development practitioners, journalists, any relevant representative from the international community and policy makers to submit papers that analyze and demonstrate the role of producer organizations and cooperatives for responsible investments and sustainable agricultural development, both at global level and in the...

This publication is a collection of articles written by economists, sociologists, and gender specialists and practitioners from twelve post-Soviet countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It is unique in its effort to review and analyze the issues that are at the intersection of gender equality, social protection...

Один из современных мировых трендов - органическое сельское хозяй- ство активно набирает обороты во всем мире. За последние 16 лет его площа- ди увеличились в 4 раза, сертифицировано более 2 млн. органических про- изводителей, более трех четвертей из которых находятся в развивающихся странах. В настоящее время под органическим производством задействова-...

Addressing gender equality is a fundamental part of FAO’s mandate. Social and economic inequalities between women and men undermine food security and restrict economic growth and advances in agriculture. The problems of hunger, malnutrition and rural poverty cannot be solved unless and until women and men are treated equally and...

This special issue of Farming Matters magazine has explored the ways in which access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources can work for family farmers. On one hand it presents cases that demonstrate the limited extent to which family farmers have been able to benefit from the ‘formal’ ABS...

FAO is currently preparing a new Medium Term Plan for 2018-2021 based on a review of the existing Strategic Framework. In order to link this process to a regional level review, the organization has initiated a structured Regional Strategic Thinking Process, the aim of which is to achieve more concrete...

he Low Impact Fishers of the Kesälahti Fish Base Cooperative (Finland), took part in the Festival of Northern Fishing Traditions organized by the Snowchange Cooperative, a network supporting local and Indigenous cultures around the world.

Artisanal or small-scale fisheries (see definition in Box 9) represent an important share of the fisheries sector in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and the considerable role that they play in the region has long been recognized. Small-scale fisheries have the potential to make a significant contribution to food...

The National Gender Profile of Agricultural and Rural Livelihoods is part of the project GCP/SEC/008/TUR, which contributes to the Regional Initiative 1 for the REU Region and to the SO3 by improving knowledge for evidence-based policies. The purpose of the National Gender Profile of Agricultural and Rural Livelihoods for Tajikistan...

Adapting to climate change and reducing the risk of disaster are topics of intense interest for anyone involved in agriculture in Serbia. In cooperation with the European Union, Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and local self-governments, FAO ran two training workshops on these issues earlier this month. Participants in...

Urgenci committed to strengthening partnerships with the various initiatives around the Mediterranean Basin and setting up programmes for experience-sharing and exchange of practice. The end objective of this is to create a real Mediterranean network of local solidarity partnerships. Our proposal is included in the Mediterranean Positive Agenda as one...

The National Gender Profile of Agricultural and Rural Livelihoods is part of the project GCP/SEC/008/TUR, which contributes to the Regional Initiative 1 for the REU Region and to the SO3 by improving knowledge for evidence-based policies. The purpose of the National Gender Profile of Agricultural and Rural Livelihoods for the...

Report consist of an overview from ten European countries explaining the situation about family farming in their own country. Countries involved: CZ, PL, I, NL, CH, LT, LV, SK, HU, UK Date: 5. April 2016

A new fish hatchery and aqua feed production unit were inaugurated last week in the Issyk-Kul province of Kyrgyzstan – the first instance of support for aquaculture infrastructure since dissolution of the Soviet Union.  Financed by the Government of Finland, the facilities were built under an FAO project entitled, “Towards Sustainable...

The four-member family Petrovic from Prnjavor near the town of Sabac, has been growing raspberies for years, agriculture being the only source of income for the family. Jovan, his wife Gordana and two sons Milan and Ivan, college students, cultivate maize, soybean, wheat and clover on 3,3 hectares of their...

Greater efficiency and sustainability in Tajikistan’s agriculture sector are the focus of a new cooperation agreement between FAO and the Government of Tajikistan. The FAO Country Programming Framework for Tajikistan, signed by both parties this week, outlines three main areas of work for the period 2016-2017: food and nutrition security and...

Our planet is heating up. Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, and extreme weather events like droughts, cyclones and floods are becoming more common. All of these events have two things in common: 1) they have the worst effect on the world’s poorest people, many of whom work as...

This paper presents an analysis of the characteristics of family farming in Europe and Central Asia and discusses its role in overcoming some of the major development challenges in this region. This paper addresses three basic questions. First, what does the family farm mean for the actors involved in it?...