Using participatory plant breeding, poor and marginal farmers in Eastern India, who previously grew old and low yielding land races, produced several new varieties of upland rice. Self-help groups produced truthful seed of these rice varieties, with production rising from 39 in 2002-2003 to 81 t in 2003-2004. It was...

Currently, vegetable farmers in Laos are not able to sell their produce because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While markets remail open, many vendors chose to close their shops and many people are also afraid to go out. Laos farmers appeal to their Laos government to help them by purchasing their vegetables...

The Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF), is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) that works across 60 000 villages in 16 states of India, reaching out to over 4.5 million farmers. In BAIF’s programme area in the Dharwad district of India, high mortality among goat kids in the rainy season was reported...

The centralised plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralised breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Paticipatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB)...

This practice describes the efficacy of herbal de-wormers vis-à-vis their chemical counterparts. By means of a participatory research approach, the effectiveness of herbal de-wormers based on traditional knowledge has been tested successfully serving as a proof of the importance of local and often orally transmitted expertise to fight livestock diseases. ...

The centralised plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in the more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralised breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding...

Bounthan Sayalath, member of the Houan Oun organic vegetable group in Xay district, Oudomxay province, Laos says that they used to sell 800 to 1,000 kilograms of vegetables per day, but nowadays, they face a serious problem because no one is buying bulk produce. Last month, their group had a...

Anthra, a non-profit organization working primarily on issues of livestock development in the wider context of sustainable natural resource use, worked with migratory shepherd communities in Maharashtra, India. Access to information on disease occurrence and remedial measures emerged as a constraint for shepherds on the move. Keeping in mind that...

The centralised plant breeding techniques of the green revolution have yielded good results in the more favourable agricultural environments. However, most low-resource farmers in marginal areas have not benefited from these varieties. As an alternative to centralised breeding, farmer participatory approaches using Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) and Participatory Plant Breeding...

Representatives from various sectoral bodies in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) met virtually Thursday for a high-level roundtable to discuss accelerated actions to leverage social protection to address COVID-19 pandemic and to officially launch the ASEAN Guidelines on Disaster Responsive Social Protection to Increase Resilience.  The ASEAN region is facing...

The WAT4CAM project was initiated in Cambodia in 2018 to develop irrigation networks for rice crops in Cambodia. The majority of the paddy areas are now highly dependent on rainfall, and climatic hazards and irrigation development would improve rice systems' productivity and profitability. This project concerns five provinces in Cambodia,...

This good practice note based on the experiences of BAIF Development Research Foundation (Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation - BAIF), shows the importance of restoring common property resources by involving the communities directly, as a way forward for impacting positively on their quality of life. “Protection of Commons” has led to...

Poor farmers in marginal areas have benefited little from high yielding, "green revolution" varieties that have transformed the productivity of more favourable areas. In the states of northeastern India, farmers who cultivate upland rice on low-fertility, sloping soils continue to grow low yielding landraces that are susceptible to diseases and...

Floating garden agriculture (locally known as vasoman/dhap chash) is a local innovative crop production technology for the submerged ecosystems of the southern region of Bangladesh. Traditionally, farmers of the Gopalganj, Pirojpur and Barisal districts have been practising the farming technology for about two centuries as an adaptation to the flooded/submerged...

The Agroecology Fund’s second global Agroecology Learning Exchange, held in February 2020 in Karnataka, India, was an extraordinary gathering of more than 70 farmers and agroecology advocates from frontline organizations, researchers, allies, and donors. The Agroecology Fund’s mission, at its core, is to support a growing global agroecology movement to...

Common Property Resources (CPRs) are important for the livelihoods of the rural communities, especially poor. Various INGOs, NGOs and government organisations have facilitated and successfully demonstrated the model for development of common lands. This has been done by developing village institution mechanisms to bring in a bottoms-up approach to development...

The high rate of adult obesity observed in Samoa (almost 46 percent in 2016) points to access to an amount of dietary energy that is well above the minimum amount of dietary energy needed by the population to be in good health and to be socially active. The analysis of...

The Asia and Pacific region is very dynamic and the countries vary in terms of socio-economic status, physical size (and that of their populations) and agro-climatic zones. Therefore they can often face both similar and/or very different challenges. The kind of support programmes that FAO provides also vary widely, with...

This note highlights the importance of engaging members of the community in documenting the wealth of traditional knowledge regarding feed and fodder systems across different agro-ecological regions. This process enhanced their self-respect and dignity in terms of their heritage and inspired them to revitalise and reintegrate some of these practices...

Increased availability of fodder biomass (e.g. grasses, shrub and tree leaves) is possible through protected commons. This increased availability of biomass has in turn directly resulted in improved livelihoods. This Good Practice reveals how management of village dynamics, building awareness, finding local solutions and building technical acumen can create ownership...