Twenty-one Asian countries are participating in a roundtable discussion as part of the FAO’s World Programme for the Census for Agriculture 2020 (WCA 2020).  The roundtable discussion was opened by Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific. The census, held once every ten years,...

Lone Andersen is an organic dairy farmer from the west of Denmark. Along with her husband, she has been working with robotic technology since 2009 and she says “it has not only improved welfare for the cows, but also for us as farmers!” 

Les activités agricoles génèrent, parallèlement à la production de biens agricoles, des externalités négatives (coûts sociaux) ou positives (bénéfices ou aménités) non pris en compte par le marché. La réduction des externalités négatives et l’accroissement des externalités positives représentent des atouts pour la collectivité, qui peuvent justifier un soutien financier de la société....

This note focuses on the topic of distress migration and youth in protracted crises, and the possible solutions from the JFFLS approach, using case studies of FAO interventions. Migration is a common phenomenon in protracted crises, mainly resulting from displacement due to conflict, natural disasters and /or the deterioration of...

This report is aimed at readers who seek to build economic evidence in support of the inclusion of actions on agriculture in climate change plans and programmes, particularly at the national level under the umbrella of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the December 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to restrict...

While agro-chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides are often promoted as inputs that increase agricultural productivity by limiting a range of pre-harvest losses, their use may have negative human health and labor productivity implications. We explore the relationship between agro-chemical use and the value of crop output at the...

Floods, droughts, heat waves, cold spells, and other natural disasters are large sources of risk for farmers. For instance, in semiarid areas of India, 89 percent of farming households cited drought as the largest risk to agricultural production. Climate change may make weather patterns more extreme and unpredictable, further exposing...

Pastoralism in Africa faces new challenges in an era of climate change, despite some improvements in policy and legislative frameworks as well as sporadic investment in pastoral development. There are concerns that pastoralism will not be sustainable in a climate-affected world, and this is seeing the return of policies to settle...

In Vietnam rice is grown on 85% of cultivated land. Annual paddy (unmilled) rice production grew from 19.2 million metric tons in 1990 to 42.4 million metric tons by 2011, and in 2012, Vietnam exported eight million metric tons of rice. These yield increases were achieved through improved seeds, but...

Tubers, pulses and millets are important for the livelihoods and nutrition of poor farmers, especially in fragile regions. These crops are not only underutilized, but are also under researched. Ama Sangathan, a women federation consisting of 1200 indigenous women, have revived these crops in two blocks in Odisha, by their...

This practice focuses on facilitating the nursery germination and plantation of the “Malabar Neem” (Melia dubia), which is locally known as “Malaivembu”. The tree is found in forest plantations in India and is a fast growing tree crop with up to 20 m height. It produces greater bio-mass in a...

Rural youth are the future of food security and rural poverty reduction. They are also the present, as there are more young people today than ever before – 1.8 billion between the ages of 10 and 24, most of them living in less developed countries and in rural areas. However,...

In the last two decades, visions of food sovereignty have inspired the origin of social movements, policy innovations, new experiments and debates. The perspective of food sovereignty is thinking by many authors as a ‘dynamic process’, without a clear conceptual and practical definition (Edelman 2014). Many social and rural movements...

The purpose of this volume is to provide FAO member countries with insights into institutional change and how a different type of market incentive contributes to the redefinition and adoption of sustainable practices by farmers. It contributes to FAO’s normative work on sustainable agrifood chains and voluntary standards by providing...

Cette année le 8 mars a eu un accent particulier. Et cela pour deux raisons. La première, les autorités ont placé la commémoration sous le thème «Entrepreneuriat agricole des femmes : obstacles, défis et perspectives». Elles sont allées plus loin que le thème de la journée internationale qui est «Planète 50-50 d’ici 2030 :...

On the basis of the results of the ELVULMED ,MOUVE, and CLIMED research projects, this chapter presents a long-term analysis of the Bedouin society in the northwestern coastal zone (NWCZ) of Egypt, especially the resilience of the Bedouin social–ecological system facing global change. Located along the Mediterranean coast, the NWCZ...

Within the SPOTS Project, L’Oréal has committed to purchasing RSPO-certified production from smallholders in the Sabah Region (Malaysia) over five years, through a partnership with the NGO Wild Asia and its suppliers. The initiative gives these smallholders a long-term access to the international market, allowing them to improve their agricultural...

Pulses have a huge share in Ethiopia’s agriculture crop production. As figures show, Ethiopia annually produces over 400 000 metric tons of chickpea, which places the country among the top ten largest chickpea producers in the world. About five million Ethiopian smallholder farmers are relying on the production of pulses for...

The United Nations High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) was established in June 2013 through a Resolution by the UN General Assembly as the main forum for sustainable development issues within the UN framework. Its establishment is one the main outcomes of the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development...

This report, achieved through a two-month consultancy, was only possible with equal financial contributions provided by the Western and Central and Pacific Commission’s Japan Trust Fund (JTF) and the Pacific Fisheries for Food Security Program funded by the Australian Government. Artisanal fisheries in Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) provide...