Family farms are especially well suited to meet the challenges of labour organisation in agriculture. In early stages of development, they play a particularly important role in creating productive employment for the major share of the population. Moreover, they have strong incentives to use their resources sustainably so as to pass them on to future generations. Yet, family farms should not be romanticised. Often, they only survive by working longer hours and accepting lower incomes than people employed in other sectors of the economy.

For a long time, the agricultural policies of the Mercosur states ignored family farming, focusing on promoting individual crops and export production instead. Rural development was not on the agenda. Only after the turn of the millennium did a process of rethinking set in.

Family farms are often associated with greater sustainability. But the definition of sustainability is a highly disputable topic. The School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) in Switzerland has developed a method enabling a more objective evaluation of sustainability in agriculture. Response-Inducing Sustainability Evaluation (RISE) covers ten sustainability indicators and supplies the foundation for agricultural advice.

A agricultura familiar em Moçambique constitui a actividade económica que ocupa grande parte da população, podendo alcançar mais de 75% dos cidadãos.

Communiqué final de l’atelier régional intitulé « Vers une sécurisation foncière du paysan dans la riziculture à grande échelle au Sahel ». L'atelier s’est tenu à Bamako, Mali, les 2 et 3 juin 2014.

This is the Final Communiqué from a regional workshop on the theme: “Towards security of tenure for farmers in large scale irrigated rice schemes in the Sahel” which was held on 2nd and 3rd June 2014 in Bamako, Mali.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation's Rick Gaynor discusses how the Voluntary Guidelines for Land Tenure help to strengthen women farmer's claims to land and improve food security around the world.

In May 2014 the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) held its sixth Independent Science Panel meeting in Managua, Nicaragua.

This paper represents an important
dimension in filling Latin America history's gaps
through the lens of land rights. The continent was populated
by many nations, functioned in harmony with nature, had a
variety of cultures and languages, and, developed many
different socio-economic systems (nationally and locally).
These nations were sovereign and recognized from Alaska to
Patagonia. Indeed, among all of them, we know they had very

In the past 50 years, Indian agriculture has undergone a major transformation, from dependence on food aid to becoming a consistent net food exporter. The gradual reforms in the agricultural sector (following the broader macro-reforms of the early 1990s) spurred some unprecedented innovations and changes in the food sector driven by private investment. These impressive achievements must now be viewed in light of the policy and investment imperatives that lie ahead.

El asentamiento Arsenio Vásquez es fruto de una ocupación masiva de familias locales de la Federación Nacional Campesina y la regularización se dio a través de un acuerdo firmado entre la organización nacional y el Estado paraguayo en 2004. Se trata de una propiedad común donde las familias locales no tienen títulos individuales, pero sí documentos que respaldan la ocupación de sus fincas.

The authors use data from Ethiopia to
empirically assess determinants of participation in land
rental markets, compare these to those of administrative
land reallocation, and make inferences on the likely impact
of households' expectations regarding future
redistribution. Results indicate that rental markets
outperform administrative reallocation in terms of
efficiency and poverty. Households who have part-time jobs