A modern national food safety system for Ukraine’s fishery products – in line with European Union requirements – is the overarching goal of a new FAO project launched here today. Funded by Norway and carried out in close collaboration with Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the project will address...

Organic and eco-sustainable farming is particularly suited to farms situated within parks, because it does not harm local ecosystems as it does not use pesticides and promotes biodiversity, improving biological links and creating ideal habitats for animal life. It also promotes grants that reward farmers for acting as “guardians/stewards of...

Global change presents risks and opportunities for social-ecological systems worldwide. Key challenges for sustainability science are to identify plausible future changes in social-ecological systems and find ways to reach socially and environmentally desirable conditions. In this context, regional-scale studies are important, but to date, many such studies have focused on...

Gender equality is a key to eliminating poverty and hunger, as it has been demonstrated by the FAO throughout its research worldwide. As part of the FAO efforts on generating evidence and knowledge, and in compliance with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality, the purpose of the Country Gender Assessment...

The objective of ‘Guidelines on Gender Mainstreaming and a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA)’ is to provide a concise and compact guide for FAO REU / SEC staff to use at different stages of the project cycle. By bringing together the key elements of gender mainstreaming and HRBA found within the...

Farmers in Kazakhstan have been increasing the land area devoted to growing oilseed and pulse crops – and it makes good sense from several viewpoints. An FAO-organized seminar on “Pulses and oilseeds: prospects for development” was held here today, one of many forward-looking events on offer this year at Astana...

A global drive to reduce food losses and waste all along the value chain has arrived in Ukraine, where this week the fisheries and aquaculture sector tackles the issue. Experts from FAO’s Fisheries Division in Rome, Italy are conducting a training course in Kyiv for representatives of Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology...

The exodus of young people is one of the main problems of rural communities in Mediterranean Europe. The declining rural population is counterbalanced by migrants that have come to live and work in the countryside. Paradoxically, it is thanks to migrant shepherds that ancient pastoral traditions are kept alive and...

Four decades of communism and an overnight transition from socialism to the free market caused dramatic shifts in food consumer – producer relationships across Eastern Europe. In the Czech Republic, a history of cooperatives and local food production contrasts with today’s situation, in which the country is almost entirely dependent...

A model fish-production farm that uses new, water-saving production methods is being inaugurated today in Sayat-Nova, in Armenia’s Ararat province. The new installation was made possible by an FAO project and a public private-partnership. Groundwater levels in the Ararat Valley have been falling in recent years due to overutilization – by...

A geographical indication label on a food product conveys information about the food’s quality, reputation or unique characteristics linked to its origin. Since these labels help guide consumers in their food choices, and help farmers and producers of traditionally produced products market those products, a well-functioning geographical indication scheme benefits...

Most European consumers are familiar with migratory species like salmon and sturgeon, and with farmed trout and carp. The long-term viability of these and other inland fish species is the focus of an FAO regional commission whose meeting opens here today. The European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission, established in...

The third European Rural Parliament (18-21 October 2017 – Venhorst, The Netherlands) resulted in the Venhorst Declaration, calling on “citizens and policy-makers to support the vitality of rural areas and to ensure that general policies and programmes are rural proofed.” The Declaration – supported by over 250 representatives of rural communities...

Этот бюллетень предназначен для ежемесячного обновления политики торговли сельскохозяйственной продукцией в регионе и предоставления соответствующих новостей, касающихся торговли сельскохозяйственной продукцией.

Recently established organic regions aim to be model regions of sustainability. In the frame of this article we understand organic regions as territories that aim at the sustainable management of local resources, based on the principles of organic farming and agroecology. The contribution focuses especially on the role and configurations...

Continued armed conflict and related instability have inflicted enormous losses on the agricultural sector in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Yet, as the rest of the economy declines subsistence farming has taken on new importance. It could even become a driver of the local economy, according to a report released...

Le numérique, les technologies de l’information et de la communication constituent un déterminant de plus en plus important dans les stratégies agricoles et de développement rural. De manières inégales et différenciées ces dynamiques globales se diffusent dans l’ensemble des pays méditerranéens qui doivent faire face à la rareté des ressources naturelles,...

In Noord-Brabant, a region in South-West Netherlands, Govert van Dis and his wife Phily Brooijmans are running an organic arable farm of around 100 hectares. They run the farm together and actively follow innovations in agroecology. Crops are grown without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, therefore crop rotation forms the...

How to strengthen producers-consumers relationships ? This activity is one of the numerous exercises to be tried out during Urgenci's learning journeys. The latest of these journeys took place in Turkey 4-8 October, thanks to the support from the Civil Society Team of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Some tasks...

Wheat breeding, the traditional technique for improving yields or producing other desired characteristics, hasn’t gone out of fashion. It still has a role to play in ensuring food security, improving nutrition levels, and coping with a changing climate. Researchers from some 20 countries this week will travel in and around Krasnodar...