The relationships between agriculture, the environment, and development are deep and complex. By 2050 a 70 per cent increase in production will be needed to feed an additional 2.7 billion people on an already degraded natural resource base. In light of this and amid the realities of climate change, the agricultural sector is now coming to terms with its potential role for contributing to – rather than diminishing - environmental, institutional, social and economic resilience.
By late in the twentieth century, scientists had succeeded in manip- ulating organisms at the genetic level, mainly by gene transfer. The major impact of this technology has been seen in the spread of geneti- cally modified (GM) crops, which has occurred with little controversy in some areas and with fierce controversy elsewhere. GM crops raise a very wide range of questions, and I address three areas of particular interest for anthropology and its allied fields.
During May 2010 the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) hosted two events related to knowledge management (KM): The Knowledge Share Fair for Latin America and the Caribbean, funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and a regional meeting of the Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev) community. The Fair was attended by 200 professionals from more than 70 organizations and 18 countries and showcased more than 40 experiences related to KM in agriculture, development and food security.
Des investisseurs publics et privés, nationaux ou étrangers, lancent des programmes d’acquisition, de location ou d’utilisation contractuelle de terres agricoles dans des pays disposant de ressources foncières bon marché, où le marché foncier relève généralement de l’État (Afrique, Asie centrale, Amérique du Sud). Cette tendance s’est accélérée à la suite de la crise alimentaire du printemps 2008, puis de la crise fi nancière. Selon la FAO, entre 20 et 30 millions d’hectares de terres auraient fait l’objet de transactions ces dernières années.
En esta publicación se presenta una visión general de las oportunidades y las dificultades actuales de las iniciativas encaminadas a aumentar los efectos de la extensión agraria y rural. El punto de partida para este análisis reside en el reconocimiento de que se ha superado la visión de la extensión agraria como sinónimo de la labor de los organismos del sector público.
L’objectif de ce guide est de faciliter la planification et la mise en œuvre des
sessions de formation. Il fait partie du cours de Gestion d’entreprises associatives
rurales en agroalimentaire et a été conçu pour les facilitateurs qui possèdent
des connaissances et une expérience en ce qui concerne les aspects techniques de
la formation, mais qui n’ont pas forcément de compétences pédagogiques et qui
n’ont pas d’expérience leur permettant de faciliter le processus d’enseignementapprentissage.
Ce document présente la position de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture (FAO) et du Forum mondial pour le conseil rural (GFRAS) sur la place actuelle des services de vulgarisation et de conseil agricole et sur les chemins qu’elle devra suivre à l’avenir. Les résultats présentés dans le document sont destinés à mieux situer la vulgarisation compte tenu de l’avenir de la recherche agricole en faveur du développement.
The Foresight project Global Food and Farming Futures final report provides an overview of the evidence and discusses the challenges and choices for policy makers and others whose interests relate to all areas that interact with the food system.
LenCD has prepared a joint statement on results and capacity development (presented in this publication), which stresses that meaningful, sustainable results are premised on proper investments in capacity development and that these results materialize at different levels and at different times, along countries’ development trajectory. To provide evidence in support of this statement, LenCD launched a call for submission of stories.
Many experts believe that low-cost mitigation opportunities in agriculture are abundant and comparable in scale to those found in the energy sector. They are mostly located in developing countries and have to do with how land is used. By investing in projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), countries can tap these opportunities to meet their own Kyoto Protocol obligations. The CDM has been successful in financing some types of agricultural projects, including projects that capture methane or use agricultural by-products as an energy source.