The Asia-Pacific region is undergoing rapid change and the food systems1 that produce and deliver food to its consumers are not exempt from these trends. Some of the challenges confronting these systems are longstanding and generally familiar, but remain important nonetheless. For example, regional and global populations continue to grow...

Despite good policies and programmes, the Philippines struggles with illegal, destructive and unsustainable practices and use of coastal resources and fisheries

This year the Pêcheurs du Monde film festival, which turns 10, was held between 19 and 25 March 2018, in Lorient, France. Filmmakers have always been fascinated by the sea, and the lives and work of fishermen. In the course of its 10 editions, the Pêcheurs du Monde (Fishers of the World) film...

Bharati Pathak, General Secretary, Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal, explains that forest and farm producer organizations (FFPOs), with the support of the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), are helping to reduce hunger and poverty at the local level. By working with community groups, including forestry user groups, FFPOs are...

The fisheries and coastal resources policy of Indonesia requires a specific operational and regulatory framework to ensure the the protection of traditional small-scale fishers

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

The government of Vietnam seeks to empower the country's fishermen through the landmark passage of an amended fisheries law

In small and remote villages in South Asia, our rich agricultural crop/breed diversity and associated knowledge is slowly getting wiped out and is being replaced by a handful of `high yielding’ and `improved’ crops/breeds. Rampant use of chemicals has led to the death of soil and is poisoning our food...

Another international CSA network has evolved in the South Pacific to serve and develop a growing food movement. The Community Supported Agriculture Network Australia and New Zealand (CSAAUSNZ) is an advocacy group dedicated to highlighting, growing and supporting CSAs in Australia and New Zealand....

Taking a road less travelled is not easy. Sometimes the whole of society stands against you. But no such fear deterred Rekha K.C. of Koorkenchery, a village in the Thrissur district of Kerala, India, the first woman in the country to go fishing in the deep waters of the outer...

Extension and advisory services (EAS) can play a very important role in scaling up Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). EAS contribute to the realization of all three objectives of CSA (food security, adaptation and mitigation), but are currently focused on the first of these, namely food security through enhanced productivity. EAS...

The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be...

Animal excrements, especially those of pigs, are produced in large volumes in Southeast Asia . Where these wastes are not properly treated, negative impacts on natural environment and health of local inhabitants are a consequence. Manure is generated in large volumes in the entire Southeast Asia. When properly treated, the volume...

A Norwegian research vessel, working for the EAF-Nansen Programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), has made a port call in Thailand as part of a regional survey of marine resources, ecosystems and environment in the Bay of Bengal. The port call marks the beginning of...

Women and men in fishing communities in South India work together to generate important beach related data. India’s 7,500 km coastline is a hotbed of transformation. The ‘Territorial Sea’, where fishing is allowed, provides an exclusive economic zone in the ocean, 60 per cent the size of its land area....

The objective of this doctoral dissertation is to look at the factors that determine the decisions of youth and their parents regarding youth occupation and thereby to understand the conditions for integrating youth into family farming. In the context of developing countries, there are increasing concerns that the younger generations...

The Indian poet, Bhupen Hazarika’s soul-stirring composition ‘O Ganga Boicho Keno (Oh Ganges, why do you flow?),’ inspired by Paul Robeson’s “Ol’ Man River”, plays as we see footage of communities facing irrecoverable loss of their homes, lands and assets by an aggressively advancing river.Women at the Water’s Edge is...

Read the latest publication by Tropical Agriculture Platform – Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems (TAP-CDAIS) project on stories of change. This relates to many stories of personal change, organizational change, changes in attitudes, changes in practice and improvements in livelihoods. Some examples of rich learning experiences started with the...

Rice-fish systems are common in many South and Southeast Asian countries as well as some areas of Africa. The systems are diverse, spanning capture fisheries and aquaculture, with fish and rice growing concurrently in rice fields and canals or, alternatively, fish raised between rice crops. FISH has developed several approaches to...

“Grape Mundo” is a technology ecosystem that guides grape farmers to do precision and sustainable grape farming to produce high-quality grapes using minimum chemicals, thus lowering the cost. This ecosystem also helps grape farmers sell export quality and residue-free grapes across a huge PAN India market, without any involvement of...