Did you know that this squash I am holding has more vitamin A than golden rice?” - Angelita Mangangan, an organic farmer from the Philippines, for #IGrowYourFood

Every year, FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific celebrates the importance of World Food Day. This year, given the COVID-19 global pandemic and the disruptions it has caused to livelihoods and food security, our celebrations are muted, yet within this context, today’s World Food Day itself has become...

In 2009, the Laos government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation entered into a bilateral agreement for the implementation of "The Agro-Biodiversity Initiative (TABI)" in upland Laos. The initiative sought to conserve, enhance, manage, and sustainably utilize the biological diversity found in upland farming landscapes to improve the...

Asia-Pacific’s smallholder family farmers produce most of the world’s food, yet they are facing a disproportionate impact on their livelihoods and food security due to the present coronavirus pandemic, a collaboration of FAO and advocacy groups warned today. The COVID-19 impact on the region’s rural communities, and particularly those in developing...

Root starch production is a long-established industry that has seen little development in recent years. In developing countries it has been estimated that five million tonnes of starch are produced annually in developing countries, half of which is produced from cassava representing a major market for small-scale root crop growers....

Highest grades of cassava starch are processed from freshly extracted starch. In many cassava processing factories, extracted starch is stored in tanks under wet conditions during the peak harvesting period (two to five months). Long-term storage of cassava starch under wet conditions results in adverse quality changes which reduce the...

YANGON, MYANMAR – “Hitting two birds with one stone” is how we can describe this initiative of the AFFM, the AFOSP-APFP partner farmers’ organization in Myanmar, to help their members during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. AFFM, one of the sectorial affiliates of CTUM, has more than 528 Basic Level Unions...

Aquatic animals that can be harvested sustainably from a farmer managed system without regular stocking, are referred to as Self Recruiting Species (SRS). A range of indigenous and introduced fish species, as well as molluscs, crustacea, and amphibians are inevitably present in many rural aquaculture systems, even where attempts have...

The Panzarawani Community Radio Station, named after the river Panjhra in Dhule district of Maharashtra in Western India, is bringing about a welcome change to marginalised indigenous ethnic communities by broadcasting information on good agricultural practices. Panzarawani reaches around 72,000 listeners in 90 villages.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) in 2016 as an alternative to chemical-based and capital intensive agriculture through its implementing agency Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS). The main objective of the ZBNF is to make agriculture economically viable, agrarian livelihoods profitable, thereby reducing agrarian distress through cost reduction and...

In Bangladesh, rice, and variations in its yield, is the key staple crop. It is critical to the livelihoods of that part of the population depending on agriculture. Transplanted aman (t. aman) is the second rice crop grown in the wet kharif II season, between July and November. However it...

This method produces small, whole planting setts, each weighing 200 g to 800 g, from minisetts as small as 25 g. The small, whole tuber setts produced by minisett rapid multiplication are excellent planting material for farmers and researchers. Each sett has a head, which means that sprouting is early,...

Properly spaced trees help provide many of the same benefits of a complete perennial cover. Fine soil particles contain most of the humus and nutrients in the soil, and if lost, soil fertility is reduced, while windbreaks help protect cropland by reducing wind velocities for a distance approximately 15 times...

Usually, farmers fatten male sheep and goats because they grow faster. To fatten the animals, it is important to find the right animals. To fatten sheep and goats, also give them protein rich feed for about 3 to 6 months. Along with good food, you must also make sure that...

Why does mountain agriculture deserve special attention in a Zero Hunger context? Firstly, because hunger remains common in many mountainous areas. While on a global scale, food insecurity has tended to go down, mountain dwellers have fared worse than people living in plains. Secondly, because mountains cover a large part...

This manual is for those farmers and individual who wish to start farming as a business. It will also serve as a useful document for Extension Agents wanting to support farmers making a transition from subsistence to commercial or semi-commercial farming. The decision to become a business farmer is not...

The history of Lanka Farmers’ Forum (LFF) draws back to the project implemented through the Medium Term Cooperation Programme (MTCP) which is supported by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). MTCP started as a pilot project in 2009 with farmers organizations in Asia and the Pacific. The main objective...

The workshop was organised by the ASEAN Foundation, in coordination with the ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN Centre for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives (ACEDAC) Secretariat, and with support from the AFOSP-MTCP2 Programme.

These Guidelines for increasing access of small-scale fisheries to insurance services, have been developed as a complement of the 2014 Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines). They were developed to provide implementation guidance for increasing access to financial...

•The tick genera Ixodes, Haemaphysalis, Dermacentor, Hyalomma, and Rhipicephalus are present in Mongolia. •Ixodes persulcatus and Dermacentor nuttalli are the most medically and veterinary important tick species. •Tick-borne encephalitis virus, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, Borrelia, Anaplasma, and Rickettsia bacteria, and Piroplasmorida apicomplexans occur in Mongolia. •Prevalence of human infection with TBPs is lower than in neighboring countries, suggesting that these diseases may frequently be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed....