This Smallholder Country Factsheet developed by the ESA Small Family Farm Team takes a closer look at the livelihood of smallholders in Indonesia. Agriculture still accounts as the major employer before industry and services, with rice production as an important mainstay of the Indonesian economy. A striking high share of...

Singur, located in Hooghly district of West Bengal, came into the limelight for its peasants’ movement in 2006. The government acquired 1,253 acres (500 hectares) of multi cropping agricultural land and leased it at a highly subsidized rate to MNC Tata through the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (a state...

Sagain, Myanmar – Chan Law is a Naga ethnic form Sagain Division, Lay Shi Township, Panset Village, Myanmar. Currently, he lives in Naw Phu village. Law comes from a family of farmers. Since he was a child, he had been helping farm his parents’ land. In 2010, He graduated with...

As our land remains under water during the rainy season, our ancestors were already thinking of ways to produce crops in order to survive. They invented the floating garden by using crop residues. We do not need any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, because the floating bed is fertile by nature....

Agriculture in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) is largely dependent on family based small-scaled farms. Smallholder family farmers often have access to less than two hectares (ha) of land and depend on labour supplied by household members, and few other inputs. Despite their small size and limited input resources, family...

In the recent years, shed house was introduced to farmers as an alternative technology for growing vegetables during rainy season because the shed house is roofed with transparent plastic. However, due to the use of plastic, the temperature in the house becomes high, which is not suitable for many parts...

This report was jointly prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP), United Nations Children’s Fund, East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (UNICEF EAPRO) and the Regional Office for South Asia (UNICEF ROSA), the World Food Programme Regional Bureau for Asia and the...

In this document, ‘farmers’ includes those who produce and/or use seeds in both industrial and cultural seed systems in line with Article 9 on Farmers’ Rights in the Seed Treaty. The custodians of cultural seed systems are referred to as ‘indigenous peoples and peasants’, and more broadly also include smallholders,...

This document contains the local and ethnic knowledge of the Hmong people of Long Lan village, Luang Prabang district, Luang Prabang province, Lao PDR. It relates to community institutions in the management of natural resources, agricultural practices, and animal husbandry, as well as the behavior of the people towards natural...

In October 2018, I gave a presentation on Seizing and Scaling Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Improving Public Extension Services at the 9th Annual Meeting of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) at Jeonju in the Republic of Korea.

Biodiversity is an important characteristic to keep ecosystems stable and to make efficient use of environmental resources. These trends of simplification of agro-ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, and degradation of ecosystem services need to be averted. Agroecology is a promising approach to restore biodiversity and ecosystem services to agro-ecosystems, and transition...

The Proceedings book includes the contributions from agreocology experts and practitioners that took part as speakers in the International Symposium on Agroecology for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems in China held Kunming, Yunnan, China from 29-31 August 2016. The volume has been prepared in order to collect and disseminate further...

Indonesia can achieve its goal of achieving high income status but in order to do so the country must first create greater access to more nutritious foods and invest in human capital, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said today.  Indonesia’s economy has been growing at a steady pace for many...

While climate change and extreme weather events are impacting the environment in many ways, agriculture and food production in Asia and the Pacific are among those hardest hit and must be first in line to defend, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today. Droughts, floods and other natural disasters...

Bangkok, Thailand, FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and representatives from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), today re-affirmed their close collaboration on technical cooperation work in the region during an annual review of the programme. The annual review process was “a very valuable occasion that will...

FAO has been recently approved two projects to strengthen community-fisheries in Tonga and Samoa. The aim of the projects is to strengthen the technical capacity for both countries to improve and streamline their community-based fisheries management programmes. These programmes play an integral role in ensuring the effective management of coastal fisheries...

With the effects of climate change and extreme weather events disproportionately affecting people in the Pacific, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the support of the Marshall Islands government is providing emergency aid to some of the Marshall Islands remote atolls hit hardest by drought. In...

Within the scope outlined in the generic scoping report for the regional and subregional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services (decision IPBES-3/1, annex III), particular challenges found across the Asia-Pacific region include climate change (particularly sea-level rise, increased intensity of extreme storm events, ocean acidification and glacier retreat), population growth,...

Champasack, Laos – In recent years, the shed house was introduced to farmers as an alternative technology for growing vegetables during rainy season because the shed house is roofed with transparent plastic. However, due to the use of plastic, the temperature in the house increases, which is not suitable for...

Pacific Islands – Today, if you talk to farmers’ organisations, government agricultural officers or agricultural development practitioners in the Pacific, there is a good chance you are going to hear them talking about value chains. In fact, it is likely that you will also hear farmers, exporters, and agro-processors also...