Sustainable Development Goals and Low Carbon Development are global- and national-scale development agendas Indonesia is currently applying. Mangrove ecosystems are included to achieve the targets within the same time frame, and a coordinated strategy and integrated planning are necessary. The National Strategy for Mangrove Ecosystem Management clearly separates between conservation and...

In the Philippines, climatic unpredictability has been one of the main factors causing fluctuations in forage production; as a result, an efficient feed preservation strategy must be used. This study assessed the effect of various levels of L. plantarum as Napier silage inoculant on sheep's feed intake and growth performance. Using a...

Babarandage don Sarath Appuham, a 59-year-old fisherman, has worked at Negombo Lagoon since he was a teenager. Palpable differences in tide patterns and fish catches from climate change have complicated his work. “We used to always go at 9am, then 1pm. It’s no longer that predictable,” Sarath told Al Jazeera. They have...

The agricultural sector, particularly in low-income countries, is facing multiple challenges including climate change, soaring food, fuel and fertilizer prices, biodiversity loss, and lack of adequate investment in agricultural development. With world hunger levels on the rise,1 an urgent move away from industrial agriculture and intensive farming practices is essential...

The Global Environment Facility’s Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) supports developing countries to build institutional and technical capacities to meet the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) requirements. This final evaluation assessed the first cluster of the FAO CBIT projects – national projects in Cambodia, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea, and the...

The Japan Coast Guard has provided its counterpart in the Pacific island country of Kiribati with technical support to crack down on illegal fishing boats. The move came following China's recent increased presence in the region. Japan sent three officers for the support program from June 19 to 26 in the...

The Pacific Islands Rural and Agriculture Stimulus Facility (PIRAS) is a COVID-19 recovery programme that emphasizes food self-reliance, improved nutrition and the development of sustainable, equitable agricultural livelihood opportunities for rural communities in Fiji and five other Pacific Island countries. PIRAS is helping farmers get back on their feet and increase their income...

Following severe forest loss in recent decades, Southeast Asian countries are increasingly employing social forestry as a means to ensure the sustainable development of their forest-dwelling communities. Given the potential of agroforestry to provide multiple ecosystem services, habitat for the maintenance of biodiversity, and the economic and social development of...

In this era when many societies have embraced fast food and convenient, ready-made meals, it was refreshing to watch a documentary on the Korean Air flight back home recently, showing how citizens, chefs and scientists across the globe are increasingly waking up to the importance of nurturing and promoting local...

The Sustainable Ocean Initiative Capacity-Building Workshop for the Wider Caribbean and Central America on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in the Marine Fishery Sector was co-organized by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The workshop was held...

‘Going to the field is compulsory for our students’ – told a professor, ‘…even I go to field regularly. As you see, the knowledge of the farmers is quite poor, particularly about the latest technologies.’ ‘We go to collect data to understand farmer’s problem’ – chirped a student from behind. Our...

In this video, How I Build Soil in My Garden, Nasira Habib explains how nature works to provide nutrients to plants. She also shares her experience of hot and cold composting. Additionally, she tells about the compost water extract.

One of the most important staple foods, rice, is agronomically- and nutritionally-sound and provides the calories needed by around half the world’s population. There is an urgent need to take all necessary actions to produce rice in a sustainable manner in order to fulfil the future demand for food that...

Soil is our lifeline. It sustains life with a variety of foods, holds and filters water to provide us with clean and safe potable water and maintains ecological balance by storing carbon. But there is so much to understand about soil and how it works. Agroecology is a holistic approach...

Humans depend on a thin planetary ‘skin’ made up of life in all its diversity: biodiversity. Agriculture now covers the largest portion (46%) of the global land surface area; its ecological health and resilience in the face of changing climate is therefore critical to human survival. The biodiversity found within...

The Family Farming Knowledge Platform (FFKP) Monthly Digest showcases the latest contents uploaded in the FFKP to provide its readers with relevant and up to date information on family farming main themes such as agroecology, smallscale fisheries, pastoralism, indigenous people, and more.

We met Dal Bahadur Kandel, a farmer in Sundwari village, during an ICIMOD/GRAPE team visit to Karnali Province, western Nepal, in November 2022. Kandel gave us a tour of his traditional farm, a 2,500-m2 property around his home. He showed us the different crops he was cultivating – gourds, melons, cauliflower,...

Reducing food loss increases both food supply and income. This was the case in Thailand, thanks to some simple technical innovations in germinated brown rice processing. A Japanese-funded project brought together FAO, The Thai government and Mahidol University to explore ways in which to reduce food waste in micro-, small...

Millets have finally arrived on the global scene. With 2023 being declared as the International Year of Millets, by the United Nations, the spotlight is on millets. While half a billion people across the globe consume millets as a traditional food, it has taken decades, for it to get its...

This document on consumption-based water management (CBWM) distils and expands on the findings of an expert consultation hosted by FAO and the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), 29–30 October 2019. The meeting brought together Chinese and international experts to discuss the technical, governance and broader dimensions...