Local varieties often cope better with drought and other stresses, and outperform modern varieties when grown under ecological conditions. Collect traditional varieties by visiting seed savers in their homes, or while attending seed festivals and farmer training events. Seed savers and seed producers select the varieties they like most. These...

The integrated assessment of agricultural value chains through economic, social and environmental analyses is aimed at providing the necessary and sufficient information to guide or support investment decisions in the context of sustainable development. These assessments are based on data collection and analyses of the organisation of these value chains,...

AFSA is delighted to launch a series of five national reports, within AFSA’s Our Land is Our Life land rights initiative in these countries. These reports aim to: Examine Land Policies and Governance: They seek to understand the national land policies and governance structures, focusing on how these policies affect peasants’ rights,...

Daouda Ndiaye of the National Collective of Artisanal Fishermen of Senegal (CNPS from the French)wears several hats. He is Co-chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) and vice-president in charge of communication of the Joint Commission of the Professional Artisanal Fisheries Organizations of Senegal (CONIPAS). Edited excerpts of...

The government of Tanzania has drafted a strategy to improve the performance of organic agriculture and increase the production of organic foods in the country. The "National Ecological Organic Agriculture Strategy" is an eight-year initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture, which will officially launch in June 2023. The strategy...

La Stratégie nationale de développement de l’agroécologie au Burkina Faso (SND-AE) a été élaborée pour aider le pays à s’investir dans l’intensification agroécologique en vue de réaliser une sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle durable dans un contexte environnemental caractérisé par la baisse des précipitations, la dégradation des sols et des ressources...

Because of our seed bank, we have native varieties again. By using indigenous seed our costs have reduced as we can grow and keep our own seed. So, we don’t have to depend on the market. In our seed bank, we also train farmers how to grow crops organically, free...

AFSA is delighted to launch a series of five national reports, within AFSA’s Our Land is Our Life land rights initiative in these countries. These reports aim to: Examine Land Policies and Governance: They seek to understand the national land policies and governance structures, focusing on how these policies affect peasants’ rights,...

This publication is a significant contribution to the agroecological transition. It results from documenting good and little-known stories about traditional seeds, local seeds and farmers’ seed systems. Seed practitioners provide the initial stories. A multi-disciplinary review committee then helped finalize the stories to provide readers and policy-makers with the arguments...

This paper responds to current concerns about quantitative methods for studying decision-making by describing the development of and results from an innovative transdisciplinary and mixed-methods tool for researching intrahousehold decision-making. The tool focuses specifically on decision-making about agricultural- and expenditure-related matters by spouses in marital or cohabiting relationships, although it...

Farmers are increasingly facing challenges relating to climate change. It is vital therefore to make them aware of good agricultural practices that can help them increase not only production, but also their resilience. Having understood well such problems, Access Agriculture is working in Benin, West Africa, to provide rural actors with...

When Suzana Hamimu Kaleju began working as a fish processor 30 years ago in the port of Kigoma, she used to lay the sprat, a type of herring, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika before selling her dried fish in local and regional markets. They would get dusty or sandy so...

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) raises a dire warning about the escalating food crisis in the Sudan. As conflict and economic decline continue to ravage the country, urgent and intensified humanitarian support for rural communities is urgently needed. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase (IPC) projections,...

By installing an integrated farm, you can produce something on every inch of land, while reducing waste and buying fewer inputs. Draw a map of your farm and decide where to grow what crops, trees and vegetables, based on your knowledge of which crops need sun and which grow in...

AFSA is delighted to launch a series of five national reports, within AFSA’s Our Land is Our Life land rights initiative in these countries. These reports aim to: Examine Land Policies and Governance: They seek to understand the national land policies and governance structures, focusing on how these policies affect peasants’ rights,...

AFSA is delighted to launch a series of five national reports, within AFSA’s Our Land is Our Life land rights initiative in these countries. These reports aim to: Examine Land Policies and Governance: They seek to understand the national land policies and governance structures, focusing on how these policies affect peasants’ rights,...

Le warrantage se développe actuellement dans plusieurs pays du Sahel. C’est un dispositif de crédit-stockage mis en place par une organisation d’agriculteurs et une institution financière. Il consiste à stocker quelques mois une partie des céréales après la récolte dans un entrepôt en échange d’un crédit individuel. Sans ce crédit,...

FISH4ACP is an initiative of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) to support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture development. The five-year value chain (VC) development programme (2020 to 2025) is implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with funding from the European Union...

In drylands, scientific research shows that mobile livestock systems derive the maximum social, environmental and economic benefits from these areas. These systems ensure both short-term security in case of shocks and, in the right conditions, investment capacity. However, it is difficult to develop indicators to understand and assess their contribution...

For decades, there have been reports of the deforestation of Africa. And they are true — the continent’s forests are disappearing, lost mainly to expanding agriculture, logging, and charcoal-making. But the trees? Maybe not, according to new satellite data analyzed by artificial intelligence and a growing body of on-the-ground studies....