This practice shows that pineapple cultivation not only minimizes soil erosion but also promotes the rehabilitation of degraded sloppy lands for additional income. Technical details are provided for the implementation of this practice including pit preparation and seedling plantation. The economic advantages of this practice include local labour generation and...

The Mainstreaming of Organic Agriculture And Agroecology in the Himalaya Region: Adequate policies that advance the transition towards sustainable agriculture and food systems to ensure healthy food for all, to overcome social and economic inequalities and to protect our environment, climate, and biodiversity, are urgently needed. After highlighting the world’s...

The Country Gender Assessment (CGA or Assessment) for agriculture and rural development in Nepal was undertaken in 2017 primarily to inform the gender-sensitive country-level planning and programming of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and to contribute to the implementation of FAO’s Policy on Gender Equality...

With their ability to mobilise 1.5 billion smallholder producers, forest and farm producer organisations (FFPOs) can help drive a paradigm shift away from large-scale monocultural systems, which are vulnerable to climate change and highly inequitable. FFPO businesses embody greater diversity and equity, pursuing market opportunities for a diverse basket of...

There are hints of ecological farming everywhere you look on Jit Bahadur Singar’s farm. Plastic bottles holding a few drops of imitation pheromones hang among bitter gourd plants to attract pests. A home brew of animal urine, leaves, and remnants of garlic, hot pepper and tobacco – a bio-pesticide –...

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

Formed in 2007, Food Plant Solutions Rotary Action Group (FPS) creates science-based educational materials, which: identify highly nutritious local food plants, explain how to grow them in a sustainable, agroecological way, detail the nutritional value of the plants and describe why human bodies require those nutrients. The resources created by FPS allows people to better...

Bharati Pathak, General Secretary, Federation of Community Forestry Users, Nepal, explains that forest and farm producer organizations (FFPOs), with the support of the Forest and Farm Facility (FFF), are helping to reduce hunger and poverty at the local level. By working with community groups, including forestry user groups, FFPOs are...

The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be...

More than twenty years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations contributed to the growing recognition of the role of pollination in agricultural production, with the publication of “The Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics”. Since that time, the appreciation of pollinators has grown, alongside the...

More than twenty years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations contributed to the growing recognition of the role of pollination in agricultural production, with the publication of “The Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics”. Since that time, the appreciation of pollinators has grown, alongside the...

Growing populations and consumption patterns are squeezing forests – especially through industrial agriculture. But many of the 1.5 billion people who live within the world’s remaining forest landscapes are farmers too, albeit smallholders. Many grow and protect trees. Most also hunt and gather from the forest. Forests provide them with...

The South-South Cooperation Forum held at Park Village Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal on 14-16 December 2017 was a success with over 70 participants consisting of farmer leaders, representatives of farmers’ and fishers’ organizations, government officials, scholars from South Asian countries as well as international development partners in attendance. South Asian Association for...

Forests have, historically, had a very important role in food security in upland areas of South and Southeast Asia – both as sources of wild food and as sites for grazing, planting food trees and bushes, and various types of shifting agriculture. However, since at least the early 20th century,...

Research shows that in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) climate variability already influences water availability, ecosystem services, and agricultural production. According to downscaled climate projections, the risks of climate-induced hazards such as floods, landslides, and droughts are projected to increase significantly by 2050. To an increasing degree, rural women in...

Himalayan Permaculture Centre (HPC) is a grass-roots NGO registered at national and district level. It has a focus on remote/poor/resource depleted farming communities in Surkhet & Humla districts of Western Nepal, and especially marginalised populations (women & low-caste), using low-tech appropriate technologies to increase domestic farm productivity through reducing costs...

HPC has a focus on remote/poor/resource depleted farming communities in Surkhet & Humla districts of Western Nepal, and especially marginalised populations (women & low-caste), using low-tech appropriate technologies to increase domestic farm productivity through reducing costs of labour, money and other external resources while increasing farm diversity, reslience, health, education...

Himalayan Permaculture Centre (HPC) is a grass-roots NGO registered at national and district level. It has a focus on remote/poor/resource depleted farming communities in Surkhet & Humla districts of Western Nepal, and especially marginalised populations (women & low-caste), using low-tech appropriate technologies to increase domestic farm productivity through reducing costs...

One of the five point priority agenda of the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) is to build and strengthen farmers’ cooperatives and their enterprises that will give farmers a stronger involvement in value chains and increase their market power. Thus, AFA has established a Cooperative Development Program...

This is a compilation of case studies written by AFA members who implemented FFF projects in 2015-2016. The cases reflect the struggles, the actions and the lessons learned by AFA members in organizing and building the capacities of their members in forested landscapes, at village, commune or district/town levels, in...