Life in the rural areas of Armenia has perks but has never been easy. Around one-third of villagers live below the poverty line. This situation has been further exacerbated by COVID-19, which has imposed greater financial challenges by restricting the opportunities for trade and seasonal work abroad. At the same...

The Green Road of Ecovillages is a network of ecological communities and permaculture centers that give shelter to refugees from Ukraine. Some of the displaced people are now elsewhere in Ukraine, others outside Ukraine. It was born organically on the basis of an existing network and due to the incredible...

This practice describes the steps for holding local demonstrations. This guide offers an overview of the essential elements to consider when preparing, carrying out, and evaluating on-farm demonstrations. It proposes six simple steps to follow when designing an on-farm demonstration event, starting from defining the objectives, considerations on the site, the...

In 1989, a disease outbreak left cocoa plants and production in Brazil’s eastern state, Bahia, fully devastated. The land became abandoned until a group of rural farmers, who used to work on those fields, saw the untapped potential and rehabilitated it. Today, the Brazilian short movie “Two rivers – Cocoa...

Breeding and raising sheep are complex tasks requiring rich, traditional experience. In this aspect, Farmer Field School (FFS) platforms are now helping farmers’ education and empowerment in Azerbaijan and assist them in achieving sustainable food production and improve livelihoods through testing, validating, and adopting good agricultural and marketing practices. In Azerbaijan,...

Working to safeguard the food security and livelihoods of vulnerable rural families in Ukraine, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has distributed seed potato kits to 17 740 households from across ten of the country’s oblasts so they can plant food in time for the next...

Switzerland  Rebecca Clopath is a well-known Swiss chef renowned for her nature-focused approach to preparing food. Despite her impressive formation as a chef, Rebecca’s focus has never been to chase culinary fame and accolades, but rather to work with nature to produce fresh, seasonal dishes with organic and locally-sourced ingredients in...

his publication describes the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s multisectoral voluntary approach to antibiotic stewardship in food-producing animals, developed as a collaboration between industry and government. It is a tribute to all those involved for their tremendous efforts, commitment, and continuous work to improve responsible use of...

Countries of Europe and Central Asia are united in protecting food production, supplies and trade, even during times of war. For days at the Thirty-third Session of the Regional Conference for Europe in Łódź, Poland, 50-plus FAO Members discussed possible paths and approaches for realizing this goal and for improving nutrition and...

Ensuring better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life – the “four betters” – in Europe and Central Asia is the end goal as discussions continue on the second day of the Regional Conference for Europe in Lodz, Poland. Today, FAO Members in the region have the possibility...

Peasant agroecology supports life-enriching systems and opposes life-alienating systems. It offers solutions to the major environmental, social, economic and political challenges we are facing today. It is a living practice, as well as a science and a socio-political movement, built and fostered by people over thousands of years. For aeons...

We are excited to announce that Access Agriculture podcasts are now available in English (https://accessagriculture.podbean.com/category/english/) and French (https://accessagriculture.podbean.com/category/french/). It is a great way to listen to farmers and experts from around the world talk about the topics you care about, as we have repurposed summaries of our popular videos as...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new project in the Republic of Tajikistan to improve regulations for the protection and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge on the topic. The three-year undertaking, “Facilitating agrobiodiversity conservation and sustainable use to promote food and nutritional...

  Agriculture is a major threat to global biodiversity. A common claim is that large-scale agro-industrial farming is mainly responsible for the biodiversity decline, while smaller family farms are more wildlife friendly. Here we leverage a natural experiment along the former inner German border to estimate the causal impact of farm...

The project "Increasing longevity of Swiss dairy cows" aims to develop concrete strategies for optimizing longevity in collaboration with farmers.

In the countries of Europe and Central Asia, about half of the population lives in rural territories, with those people who produce the food we eat among them. Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the impacts of the ongoing war...

To address the impacts of the war in Ukraine on the global agricultural sector, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new $17 million project to help Ukrainian farmers save the upcoming harvest in July-August while ensuring export of critical agricultural goods to international...

Life in rural areas has its beauties and hardships. Yet, Qyaram Khachatryan said he would never want to exchange his village life in northern Armenia for living in a city, even after he lost virtually everything in the devastating earthquake of 1988. Lost everything but his good spirit and hope,...

The first UN Food Systems Summit will have a long-lasting impact on a global scale, despite the other historic events of 2021. This echoes across Europe and Central Asia, giving an impulse to a side event at the Regional Forum on Sustainable Development on the role of sustainable food systems in building back better in Europe...

The war caught Larysa Zueva while she was working a shift at a psychiatric hospital in Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. She spent more than a month with her grandson in the hospital's shelter with about 200 other people. Despite the attacks, her work at the hospital continued. When the gas...