What is successful access and benefit sharing’ for smallholder family farmers? This contribution argues it is not about legal contracts or mechanisms that regulate the international transfer of plant genetic resources. It is about farmers’ access to seed diversity and the ability to share in the benefits of the continuing...

The collapse of the socialist block in 1989 generated a deficit of energy, supplies and chemicals, and forced significant changes in the ways in which food was produced and distributed in Cuba. Due to these deficits, in the 90´s Cuba moved from being the largest consumer of agrochemicals in Latin...

"Esta edición presenta artículos cuyos autores, en muchos casos protagonistas mismos de la experiencia, refieren que para avanzar en la práctica de la producción agraria sostenible es necesario medir sus impactos, pues con ello es posible valorar la eficiencia de los esfuerzos invertidos para los procesos de transición hacia la...

This issue of Farming Matters explores the different ways pastoral societies are joining forces to challenge the policies that undermine their culture and way of life. For millennia, pastoralist societies have managed the rangelands of the world’s most challenging environments, producing food and providing ecosystem services for millions of households. The experiences,...

Mapping the Local and Solidarity-based Partnerships in Mediterranean Basin is an extremely challenging task: it means dealing with a new and rapidly growing field. To date, to the best of our knowledge, there is has been no study that deals specifically with local food systems in the area as a...

Один из современных мировых трендов - органическое сельское хозяй- ство активно набирает обороты во всем мире. За последние 16 лет его площа- ди увеличились в 4 раза, сертифицировано более 2 млн. органических про- изводителей, более трех четвертей из которых находятся в развивающихся странах. В настоящее время под органическим производством задействова-...

The Farmer to Farmer Agroecology Movement (MACAC) is a grassroots movement inside of the Cuban National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), which is a member of the international peasant movement, La Via Campesina. MACAC is a mass-based movement in which the campesino (peasant farmer) members of ANAP have been transforming their productive...

This special issue of Farming Matters magazine has explored the ways in which access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources can work for family farmers. On one hand it presents cases that demonstrate the limited extent to which family farmers have been able to benefit from the ‘formal’ ABS...

Las Kuatras Marias farm is located in San Narcisso village, near Victoria City in Oriental Mindoro, Philippines, where rice monoculture is the main source of income for family farmers in the area. Applying an extensive knowledge of indigenous and organic practices, the farm is strategically structured in distinct components that...

The E-agriculture strategy guide is an attempt to provide countries with a framework to develop their national e-agriculture strategies. E-agriculture strategies will help to rationalize both financial and human resources, and address ICT opportunities for the agricultural sector in a more holistic and efficient manner. This will help improve the...

Descripción y análisis de dos hechos que para el autor, resultan muy relevantes para el agro en Colombia: el Paro Nacional Agrario, Campesino, Étnico y Popular que se realizó entre el 30 de mayo y el 12 de junio de 2016 y la firma del acuerdo sobre cese al fuego...

The "La Aurora" farm is located 400 km southeast of Buenos Aires, within an area dedicated to mixed agricultural and livestock production. The combined effect of an increased use of agro-chemicals and the area under monocrops was the endangerment or the region's natural resources. From 1997, La Aurora started to use...

Burkina Faso ranks as the sixth poorest country in the world according to the 2015 UN Human Development Report. Recent studies estimate that 46.4% of the population in the Eastern Region lives below the poverty line. These people are caught in a vicious cycle of degrading natural resources, declining soil...

De acuerdo al Programa de Gobierno y los Lineamientos Estratégicos Institucionales 2014-2018, a nivel nacional se trabajó el área de Medio Ambiente, en donde la Región de Antofagasta ha sido la primera en recoger el guante, desarrollando así un Seminario de Agroecología, impulsando un nuevo camino en la mirada agroambiental....

Adapting to climate change and reducing the risk of disaster are topics of intense interest for anyone involved in agriculture in Serbia. In cooperation with the European Union, Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection and local self-governments, FAO ran two training workshops on these issues earlier this month. Participants in...

Rice and ducks have been ‘good friends’ of farmers in the Mekong Delta for a long time. Traditionally, farmers in the Mekong Delta planted rice paddies and raised ducks by releasing them into the paddy fields after the harvest to eat residues. A Japanese farmer, Mr. Takao Furuno, took this traditional...

Con motivo de las actividades y debates promovidos por el Gobierno Federal en el Mes de la Mujer, el MDA llevó a cabo un mini documental. El video muestra el resultado de las políticas públicas para las mujeres rurales. En el interior del Río Grande del Norte, por ejemplo, los...

Convened by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Dutch development organisation Hivos, and led from Bolivia, the network set out to generate and integrate its own knowledge on smallholders and globalisation. Their work has also been complemented by a series of debates in Europe on some of the core...

Access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources is a crucial but very complex, political and legalistic matter. Does the formal system work for family farmers? As we see in this special issue of Farming Matters, co-produced with Bioversity International, it poses many challenges. At the same time, farmers around...

Rapid population growth, increasingly complex economies and novel industrial uses of agricultural products call for further intensification of agriculture, particularly in the tropics. How to achieve sustainable intensification of food production systems in tropical regions that are challenged by ongoing climate change, loss of natural resources and biodiversity is a...