Maize remains one of the most important cereal crops grown in small-holder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)(Cairns et al., 2013). Its cultivation is generally characterized by limited input use and low yields. The low yields are often associated with low soil fertility, pest, and diseases, weeds, low and inappropriate use of inputs such as fertilizers (Sanchez, 2002).

In response to major shocks, governments and international humanitarian agencies often use direct seed distribution as a first level response to help communities stabilize or restart their farming systems. In contrast, CRS uses Seed and Voucher Fairs (S&VFs). After many years of successfully implementing S&VF, CRS developed a new type of seed fair that specifically focuses on the relief-development continuum and diversity, both in household dietary diversity for improved nutrition, and crop diversity for increased farming system resilience.

Climate change may increase the importance of agriculture in the global Circumpolar North with potentially critical implications for pristine northern ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles. With this in mind, a global online survey was conducted to understand northern agriculture and farmers’ perspective on environmental change north of 60° N.

Between Vietnam's independence and its reunification in 1975, the country's socialist land tenure system was underpinned by the principle of "land to the tiller". During this period, government redistributed land to farmers that was previously owned by landlords. The government's "egalitarian" approach to land access was central to the mass support that it needed during the Indochinese war.

Since the early 2000s the Lao government has dramatically increased the number of large-scale land concessions issued for agribusinesses. While studies have documented the social and environmental impacts of land dispossession, the role of Vietnamese labour on these Vietnamese-owned rubber plantations has not previously been investigated. Taking a political ecology approach, we situate this study at the intersection between ‘land grabbing’ studies and work on ‘labour geographies’.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This research analyses the ways in which current changes in land tenure, agrarian and socio-economic systems are reshaping resource allocations and transfers within households in indigenous communities in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia. While other gendered aspects of the transformations occurring in indigenous societies have received more attention in recent years, the changes occurring in the customary laws that determine land access, ownership and inheritance alongside gender, as well as generational lines, have not been explored.

Gender equality is a key to eliminating poverty and hunger, as it has been demonstrated by the FAO throughout its research worldwide. As part of the FAO efforts on generating evidence and knowledge, and in compliance with the FAO Policy on Gender Equality, the purpose of the Country Gender Assessment for Uzbekistan is to contribute to the production of knowledge for better informed, targeted and gender sensitive actions in agriculture and rural development.

ICARDA continued to play a critical role in the development, improvement, and dissemination of climate-resilient crop varieties last year. The varieties strengthened food and nutritional security and provided a critical defense against extreme temperatures, water scarcity, and the emergence of new pests and diseases.

As per the provisions of rule 10 of the rules of procedures of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of the Parties (COP), the second intersessional meeting of the Bureau of the thirteenth session of the COP (COP 13) held in Guiyang, China, on 26 February 2019, endorsed the inclusion of a new agenda item on land tenure, under new and emerging issues, for consideration at COP 14. The Bureau further requested the secretariat to submit a background document in that respect. 

A predominantly rural territory with few urban centers historically, the Gambia holds little in the way of well-known luxury resources commonly discussed in studies of western Africa. People of the region, in particular women, have exploited both riverine and oceanic food and material resources. The limited scholarship available on Gambian women reveals they have been essential to those endeavors contributing to economy, politics, society, and family institutions.

Recognizing the extensive literature available on outgrower cooperative farming, this case study seeks to add to this literature by providing in-depth learnings and guidance on good practices for structuring commercial, cooperative outgrower schemes in Malawi and potentially elsewhere.

Smallholder farmers in the mid-hills of Nepal are facing an acute labor shortage due to out-migration which, in general, has affected the capacity to achieve timely crop establishment, harvest, and inter-cultural operations. These effects are more visible in the case of labor-intensive crops such as rice and promoting higher levels of rural mechanization has emerged as the primary policy response option. Nevertheless, quantitative evidence for the ability of mechanization to offset the adverse effects of shortages increasing labor prices in these systems is largely absent.