Rice fish culture (RFC) of China is a pilot system supported by the FAO-GEF global Initiative on “Conservation and Adaptive Management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS)” with the participation of Algeria, China, Chile, Peru, Philippines, and Tunisia.

text of speech form participants from Asia and the Pacific.

text of speech

Over the coming 35 years, agriculture will face an unprecedented confluence of pressures, including a 30 percent increase in the global population, intensifying competition for increasingly scarce land, water and energy resources, and the existential threat of climate change. To provide for a population projected to reach 9.3 billion in 2050 and support changing dietary patterns, estimates are that food production will need to increase from the current 8.4 billion tonnes to almost 13.5 billion tonnes a year.

ABSTRACTED FROM THE FIRST TWO PARAGRAPHS: Over the past several years, the enormity of the environmental challenges facing the Mekong River Delta region of southern Vietnam has become increasingly clear. Climate change and dam construction on the upper reaches of the Mekong threaten to disrupt the flow of the river, making both droughts and floods ever more common. Meanwhile, the rapid intensification of rice agriculture in the Mekong Delta and the export-oriented cultivation of farmed fish and shrimp have increasingly strained.

The National Statistical Office has conducted the Agricultural Census every 10 years in accordance with the recommendation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and this census round was the sixth of its series. The census aims to provide basic information of the structure of agriculture and that information provides as a guideline for developing agricultural policies and plans as well as for monitoring agricultural development for both national and local levels.

... Large-scale agricultural investments – in plantations, processing plants or contract farming schemes, for example – have increased in recent years, particularly in developing countries. Investment in the agriculture sector can bring much needed support for rural development, but communities have also witnessed significant negative impacts. Some of the most serious involve local landholders being displaced from their lands and losing access to

The Chinyanja Triangle (CT) is an area inside the Zambezi
River Basin, inhabited by Chinyanja-speaking people
sharing a similar history, language and culture across
the dryland systems of the eastern province of Zambia,
southern and central regions of Malawi and Tete Province
of Mozambique. Chiefs and Chiefdoms play a critical role
in decision making and influencing social relationships. The
Zambezi River, which originates in the Kalene Hills in Zambia
is joined by ten big tributaries from six countries, and is

Recognizing the importance of policy
debate and knowledge sharing in the field of development,
the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the
World Bank (Middle East and North Africa Region) agreed in
March 2010 to hold joint high-level development seminars
around issues pertaining to the Arab World. These were to be
known as the Arab Development Symposia (ADS) and will be
held on a regular basis, every 18 months or so, at the Arab

Understanding the trade-offs in
improving the precision of agricultural measures through
survey design is crucial. Yet, standard indicators used to
determine program effectiveness may be flawed and at a
differential rate for men and women. The authors use a
household survey from Mozambique to estimate the measurement
error from male and female self-reports of their adoption
and knowledge of three practices: intercropping, mulching,

The growing global demand for animal products also offers poor livestock keepers the opportunity to switch from the subsistence to the market economy. Our author gives an account of three approaches in the meat and dairy sector in Africa and Asia with their respective potentials and limitations – and also warns against possible negative effects.

Supporting smallholder farmers is one of the best ways to fight poverty and ensure food security. Such support involving the active participation of smallholder farmers in Zambia has demonstrated a significant increase in farmers’ engagement in general and an improvement in milk production, resulting in nutritional food security both at household and national level and income for the poor farmers.