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This guide is intended to help extension workers better understand the concept of risk, the situations where risk occurs and management strategies that can be used to reduce, or at least soften its effect. It is hoped that the guide will be useful in assisting extension workers to provide farmers with advice on the kind of risk management strategies that they can employ to deal with risk in their day-to-day farming operations.
This guide has been prepared for agricultural extension workers to introduce them to some of the principles of economics that are relevant to smallholder farming and in particular market-oriented farming. The reader will gain a basic understanding of some of the terms and concepts used in economics and relate them to the day-to-day decisions that farmers make. The aim of this guide is to build skills that will enable extension workers to assist farmers make the kinds of farm management decisions that lead to greater farm profitability.
This series was developed to help extension workers provide support to farmers in dealing with the new challenges that arise from market-oriented farming. The aim is to contribute to building their capacity and skills in farm management and through them, the capacity and skills of the farmers with whom they work. The intention is to help farmers understand why they make the choices they make and how they can improve their decision making skills.
Publication's Summary:
In Colombia, the Foundation for the Sustainable and Participatory Development of Small Rural Producers (Corporación PBA) has developed a strategy for Participatory Rural Innovation (IRP), which prioritizes the development and promotion of farmers’ abilities and skills by using their own knowledge as the basis for this activity. It has also sought to encourage research institutions, state authorities, governmental and non-governmental organizations to work closely in the context of social processes at the local level, to promote innovation developed by the people themselves.
The IRP strategy allows development institutions to move from a top-down approach to horizontal interactions, where physical and...
In 2010, a study was carried out to assist the Research and Extension Branch in FAO to position itself strategically in meeting needs and demands that arise as a consequence of climate change. The goal of the study was also to assist other global and national agencies meet these needs. The results of the study formed the basis for the report “Facing the challenges of climate change and food security: the role of research, extension and communication institutions”.
FAO and CGIAR programme leaders met in Rome, to exchange new developments of their strategic objectives in both organizations and identify areas for strategic collaboration aimed at boosting the impact of their research and development activities. This is the first meeting following the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding in February this year.
The CGIAR was represented by the CEO of the CGIAR Consortium Office Frank Rijsberman, Senior Research Officers and Programme Leaders of CGIAR Research Programmes, and for FAO by...
This book documents a unique series of 19 case studies where agricultural biotechnologies were used to serve the needs of smallholders in developing countries. They cover different regions, production systems, species and underlying socio-economic conditions in the crop (seven case studies), livestock (seven) and aquaculture/fisheries (five) sectors.
The biotechnologies covered include some that are considered quite traditional, such as fermentation and artificial insemination, as well as other more modern ones, such as the use of DNA-based approaches to detect pathogens.
Occasional papers on Innovation in Family Farming
The FAO e-mail conference on the "Impacts of genomics and other 'omics' for the crop, forestry, livestock, fishery and agro-industry sectors in developing countries" took place from 4 to 24 March 2013. Advances in genomics, the study of all the genetic material (i.e. the genome) of an organism, have been remarkable in recent years. Publication of the first draft of the human genome in 2001 was a milestone, quickly followed by that of the first crop (rice) in 2002 and the first farm animal (chicken) in 2004. Huge technological advancements have meant that sequencing has become dramatically quicker and cheaper...
The core idea of the Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) was to make more information available, specifically about markets, to smallholder farmers. This was done by building a network of entrepreneurs who collected price information regularly and sent it to a central collecting Internet platform facility. Due to the demonstrated benefits the RKN project has shown, the report concluded that rural market access to business networks should be expanded to reach commercially viable scales through the ongoing IFAD, FAO and other development programmes in the region.
This study suggests that the majority of farmers – particularly smallholders – need to expand their understanding of markets and economic opportunities in order to run their farms as sustainable and profitable businesses. To create a viable livelihood from farming, they need to move from a sole focus on production for home consumption to producing also for the market. Even though farmers are innovative and entrepreneurial, they often lack the know-how to do so alone. They need advice from others; they need services.