On television screens and newspaper front pages around the world, the stories out of Africa are often filled with doom and gloom. And while the reality of life for many Africans is often difficult, there are success stories to share and inspire others. This 13-part television series, produced in cooperation...

This report argues that smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia can improve agricultural productivity, food security and livelihoods by adopting sustainable approaches that utilize resource-conserving technologies and that draw upon their own knowledge. Many thousands of communities in countries such as India, Cambodia, the Philippines, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Kenya...

Structural change during most of the first 5 decades of post-independence Africa has been productivity-reducing. It has been driven by negative diversification reflected in labor migrating from the underperforming, yet higher-productivity agricultural sector into an oversized, lowerproductivity service sector. In the aftermath of the failure of the first generation of...

Meeting food security, nutrition and gender equality objectives entails applying development approaches that allow rural communities to participate and take control of their future. Of the many approaches used by FAO, there is one that is particularly effective at enabling the most marginalised groups, including women, to take ownership of...

The document presents a roadmap for developing commercially sustainable quality seed in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It focuses on directing investments in five key areas along the seed potato value chains. The objectives of this strategic roadmap are to improve productivity, raise incomes of smallholder farmers, enhance food...

On television screens and newspaper front pages around the world, the stories out of Africa are often filled with doom and gloom. And while the reality of life for many Africans is often difficult, there are success stories to share and inspire others. This 13-part television series, produced in cooperation...

This entry discusses different methods of bee hive colonization. It explains how a baited and installed hive can be self-colonized by a bee swarm. For cases where self-colonization is unsuccessful, it outlines three different methods to capture a swarm: two alternative ways of catching a swarm (with a bag/box or...

Filmed in Zimbabwe and the United Republic of Tanzania, the video highlights the importance of rural men's and women's local knowledge to their livelihoods.

A beekeeper with a colonized hive must remember that the success in keeping bees depends on the exercise of his knowledge of colony organization. This entry focuses on practices to examine and control the colony. The first part gives detailed advice on how to inspect a hive and its colony...

The present ability or otherwise of Africa to cope with climate change and improve its agricultural production depends on the environment and natural resources base of the continent, on the impacts of its past and on the nature of its present interactions with the outside world. Africa is a large...

Livestock is still the main source of income of rural populations in the West Asian and North African (WANA) countries. However, many factors among which climate change are threatening the production systems. There are considerable gaps in our knowledge of how climate change will affect livestock systems and the livelihoods...

我们的妇女和粮食主权物品收件箱中包含处理当地和区域粮食市场的好几篇文章. 为了给你一个关于种种市场机会意见和妇女所面临的约束, 我们总结了一些用品.

The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) aims to revitalize African farming in order to reduce rural poverty and hunger. This is a massively important undertaking for a continent where a third of the population continue to struggle with chronic malnutrition. But is CAADP getting the right strategies, policies and...

A beekeeper with a colonized hive must remember that the success in keeping bees depends on the exercise of his knowledge of colony organization. Three practices of colony management are discussed in greater detail in this entry. The first part gives a step-by-step description of how to divide a very...

 Legumes are the main source of protein for more than one billion people in South Asia. ICARDA and its partners have developed new legume varieties with high yields, enhanced nutritional value, as well as other traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance.

Honeybees that nest in the open produce far less honey than those confined in enclosures. There are good reasons for this. Colonies in the open are exposed to predators and therefore have to employ numerous workers as guards to fight intruders. They have to consume large quantities of honey, which...

This newsletter also contains a special Dossier on Radio & ICTs in Rural Areas that puts together a variety of experiences in this field, from an electronic forum on Gender, ICTs and Rural Livelihoods, over participatory community radio to empower rural women and men, to the use of different methodologies...

Using lessons from the case studies this paper draws out five practical steps in reaching and supporting women marginal farmers: 1) take the lead from women marginal farmers themselves in helping build their networks and groups, 2) promote alliances and external links, 3) organising needs based training workshops and regular...

Au Togo comme au Bénin, l’agriculture repose sur de petites exploitations familiales dont l’unité socio-économique de base est le ménage. Le nombre moyen d'actifs agricoles par ménage est de 2 à 4 personnes. Les travaux agricoles sont essentiellement manuels, l’utilisation de la traction animale et de matériel adéquats étant négligeable....

Les bas-fonds sont aujourd’hui au centre de nombreux projets de développement visant une  sécurisation alimentaire à travers des projets de petite irrigation. La première partie de ce  travail traite des stratégies mises en oeuvre par le gouvernement béninois qui a fait de  l’aménagement des bas-fonds une de ses priorités. Cependant,...