LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA, Philippines— The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) calls for a holistic approach to push family farming to support resilient food systems and ensure food security in the Philippines. This was the resounding message resulting from a SEARCA-led hyflex Agriculture and Development...

Paddy stubble burning poses a major threat to agricultural sustainability in Northern India and an innovative conservation technology ‘happy seeder technology’ is a potential solution for it. Most of the innovation adoption studies usually focus on farmers’ and farm characteristics without giving much emphasis on farmers’ perception regarding the attributes...

The state of Andhra Pradesh in India has been promoting chemical-free agriculture under a programme launched in 2016. In the last six years, it has worked with 0.63 million farmers across six districts on Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF). Researchers from the University of Reading in the UK and Rythu...

Agro-food quality certification has been gaining greater importance, because it contributes to both agricultural sustainability and food quality. However, small-scale farmers in developing countries have difficulties in obtaining certification and the economic benefits acquired from certification are unclear. This paper investigates the effects of agro-food quality certification on the farm...

Social capital is an integral part of farmers’ life, which can be exogenously affected by land recuperation. Based on 1240 farmer field survey data in Gansu Province, this paper used the Logit model to analyse the influencing factors of farmers’ participation in land recuperation, and used the entropy method to...

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a grassroot agrarian movement and a state backed extension in Andhra Pradesh, and has been claimed to potentially meet the twin goals of global food security and environmental conservation. However, there is a lack of statistically evaluated data to support assertions of yield benefits...

In 2018, the state of Himachal Pradesh in north India launched an initiative to convert all its farmers to natural farming (NF), an agroecological approach. The aim was to address multiple challenges related to rural livelihoods, high input costs, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. This paper is based on a...

A large number of farms in developing countries are smallholder farms. In China, this trend is expected to persist for the foreseeable future. However, smallholder farmers in China face several challenges, including excessive fertilizer use for higher yields, low levels of education, aging and limited credit information. Moreover, they are...

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers antimicrobial resistance one of the top 10 global health emergencies affecting humanity;1 antimicrobial use in animal production is one of its key drivers. Globally, animal production accounts for about three quarters of total antimicrobial use.2 In Viet Nam, approximately 2751 tonnes of antimicrobials are...

The Government of Nepal today launched a series of programmatic frameworks in the food and agriculture sectors that will help the country transform its agrifood systems, making them more resilient and sustainable for the benefit of all people in Nepal, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)...

This newsletter compiles the human-interest stories and news releases published in the second quarter of 2021 by the FAO Representation in Afghanistan. They include both development and humanitarian work and depict the impact and relevance of FAO's work in the lives of those farmers, livestock owners, herders and other vulnerable...

In the first edition of its newsletter, the Coalition for food systems transformation through agroecology (Agroecology Coalition) has cited EcoAgtube among the important resources from its members. The Agroecology Coalition brings together countries and stakeholders to accelerate the transformation of food systems through agroecology. It has a membership of more than...

Aquaculture has seen enormous progress in recent decades and is destined to produce the majority of the ever-growing demand for aquatic food.The sector now needs an updated set of governing principles that ensure that it expands and intensifies, embracing modern technologies, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible,...

Women livestock rearers, who attended the ‘Animal Rearer Award for Women’ ceremony organised by the NGO Anthra, led by Dr. Nitya Ghotge, in Pune, Maharashtra, India, greatly appreciated the farmer-training videos on herbal medicines in animal healthcare, that were jointly developed by Anthra and Access Agriculture.

Smallholder farmers in India are on the frontlines of the climate and agrarian crisis and they include most of the farming population in the country. They face high input costs, are very sensitive to climate risks, lack knowledge of sustainable agricultural practices, and experience crop yields that are ~50% lower...

CARE’s Farmer Field and Business School (FFBS) model focuses on improving small-scale farmers’ productivity, resilience and access to markets. FFBS is a hands-on, learning-by-doing approach through which groups of farmers meet regularly during the course of their value chain production cycle to learn about new agricultural techniques and to experiment...

Transforming Philippine agriculture remains an urgent need, not just because it is intrinsically connected to food security but also for poverty reduction. The technologies brought by the Green Revolution in the 1960s sparked growth in the sector, but it has remained slow compared to some of its neighboring countries. Although...

A key fisheries and aquaculture development programme implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has highlighted significant potential to boost these sectors in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Tanzania, Guyana and the Marshall Islands, making them more self-sufficient, creating jobs and preserving biological stock levels.The countries are...

The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) together with the Regalo ng Kilit Foundation, Inc. convened the First International Conference on School-Plus-Home Garden cum Biodiversity Enhancement Enterprise (SHGBEE1) with the theme, “Restoring Biodiversity, Regenerating Agriculture, and Building Businesses.” Held on 8-12 November 2022 at...

Food security is paramount in Bangladesh, which has a high population density (1329 people per km2) and poverty rate (18.7%). Seed is a critical input in agriculture. The timely use of quality seeds of potential varieties can increase yields by up to 25%. Currently, about 46% of the farmers in...