While India was home to more than 100,000 rice varieties only 50 years ago, today more than 80% of the area dedicated to grow rice is planted with hybrid varities. Thanks to the efforts of about 1,400 farmers in the Koraput region (Odisha state), traditional varieties of "desi dhaan", as they...

ECTAD’s work in the Asia-Pacific region mainly focuses on emerging pandemic threats like H7N9 

Research shows that in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) climate variability already influences water availability, ecosystem services, and agricultural production. According to downscaled climate projections, the risks of climate-induced hazards such as floods, landslides, and droughts are projected to increase significantly by 2050. To an increasing degree, rural women in...

The present study reviews recent trends in rural finance and investment in general, and in the agricultural sector in particular, within the Asian region. The analysis of these trends aims to offer a critical perspective on some of the main constraints to achieving more inclusive rural financial systems in developing...

While there has been an unprecedented achievement in poverty reduction in the last three decades, eradicating extreme poverty and halving poverty by 2030 are still two of our greatest challenges. Today, about 767 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. Roughly, two thirds of the extreme poor live in...

Hle Gu, Myanmar – Saw Htoo Baw is a young farmer from Tha Bite Kone village, Hle Gu Township in Myanmar. In 2015, the Agricultural Farmer Federation of Myanmar (AFFM) visited his area and met with him. Saw Htoo Baw expressed his concern about the increasing use of synthetic and chemical...

With grafting, a young shoot from a preferred mango variety is attached to a seedling. The seedling will develop the root and base of the tree. This is called the rootstock. The young shoot that is grafted onto the rootstock is called the scion. This will develop into the canopy....

BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we're challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today - the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport. With your help, they'll be coming up with real-life...

Those pineapples that still seem exotic on a super market shelf anywhere beyond the equator, are not just gorgeous to look at and luscious to eat or drink but this seemingly omnipresent tropical produce requires a careful and lengthy process of cultivation. In the Pacific island of Vanuatu, where pineapple production...

Climate change poses an alarming threat to food systems and food security in the Pacific islands, warned leaders of nine small island developing states (SIDS), representatives of regional development bodies, New Zealand and Australia at a meeting chaired by FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today. The meeting took place ahead...

Climate change is one of the most important challenges to sustainable development in the Northern mountainous region of Vietnam. IK is also used in cultivation techniques in extreme climatic conditions. With cultivation conditions are mainly sloping land, many traditional techniques have been applied to limit soil erosion due to heavy rainfalls...

Those responsible for producing, processing and overseeing the food we eat must take more collaborative and decisive action if the Asia-Pacific region is to achieve the zero hunger target of the Sustainable Development Goals by the 2030 deadline, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and partners warned on the...

Smallholder farmers particularly in climate vulnerable developing countries such as Myanmar are facing increasing challenges related to food insecurity and climate change. Research has increasingly pointed towards agro-ecology as a movement, with the science and approach suitable to building the resilience of smallholder farmers. Since 2014, the Myanmar Institute for Integrated Development (MIID) has been actively...

FAO report points to pressing need to boost regional food systems, accelerate action to improve diets and nutrition According to the findings of FAO’s 2017 Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutritionreport, there is a pressing need to tackle malnutrition alongside further promotion of the consumption of healthier foods while curbing the...

Natural and man-made disasters, including typhoons, flooding, drought and armed conflict threaten the livelihoods of farmers and fishers, and ultimately, food security in the Philippines. Helping communities recover and increasing the resilience of the agriculture sector is at the heart of FAO’s work in the country. The video features FAO’s...

The Strategic Plan 2017-2022 delivers the key pathways to strengthen agri-food research and innovation systems (AFRIS), in order to develop agri-food systems and to bring about sustainable agricultural development in Asia and the Pacific. These developments are considered fundamental requirement in the post-2015 development agenda and in realization of the...

This paper explores how the integration of rice markets in ASEAN countries influences the import, export, production, consumption, and prices of rice in those countries, as well as in the rest of the world. The analysis describes current policies applied to ASEAN rice markets, then evaluates the ten-year impacts of...

The Oshika peninsula is located within the Miyagi prefecture, one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, and has an extension of about 20 km of coastline, comprised of small bays dominated by rocky or sandy bottom environments. Rivers flow to the ocean from forests with an elevation of up to...

Indonezian Small Farmer, start Rice- Fish Farming

Yangon, Myanmar – Ko Phyo lives in Bagan Taung village, Thanlyin, Yangon Region, Myanmar. In 2015, he attended a two-week farmer empowerment training conducted by the AFFM (Agriculture and Farmer Federation of Myanmar) where he learned natural resources management, organic agriculture, compost-making, and mushroom-growing. “I don’t have any training or resources...