Millions of dollars have been invested in programs to encourage the adoption of sustainable farming practices associated with conservation agriculture (CA), including programs aimed at Samoan farmers. However, many smallholder farmers, including those in Samoa did not adopt the recommended practices. CA programs aimed at Samoan farmers were investigated, and participatory action research about the most recent program was conducted.
This study reviews the available literature on processed non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in order to comprehensively identify relevant factors enabling or constraining their potential to contribute to rural development. Background and Objectives: NTFPs, such as wild foods, medicinal plants, and raw materials for handicrafts, make significant contributions to rural livelihoods. NTFPs can help fulfil households’ subsistence and consumption needs, serve as a safety-net in times of crises, and provide cash income.
The Fiji Islands, like many small Pacific island nations, are thought to incur high rates of postharvest loss. Little work has been undertaken to quantify the amount of loss within Pacific horticultural value chains, or identify the key determinants. This study sought to quantify postharvest loss within Fijian smallholder tomato value chains and to examine the relative importance of current on-farm practices as possible contributors to this loss.
Sustainability is becoming a pivotal guide for driving the governance strategies of value chains. Sustainable policy should have as its objective the perpetuation of production models over time to maintain its environmental, economic and social dimensions. Therefore, measuring the sustainability of a production system is fundamental to deepening the understanding of ongoing trends, considering the pressure exerted by agricultural policies, market dynamics and innovations introduced in the production system.
Traditional approaches addressing hunger, typically based on agricultural development, are deemed insufficient alone to address the problem and attention is now being directed to food value chains, although experience is currently limited. To assess the state of science and identify knowledge gaps, an integrative review of the broad topic of value chains and diet quality was undertaken, with particular focus on interventions and their related impact pathways.
This paper begins with a brief review of research on nutrition-sensitive value chains in developing countries. It then presents the Value Chains and Nutrition framework for intervention design that explores food supply and demand conditions across a portfolio of local value chains that are relevant for improving nutrition outcomes. The authors explore the framework in a case study on rural Malawi. Available evidence highlights the dominance of maize in diets, but also the willingness of rural households to consume other nutritious foods (e.g.
The interactions between bottom-up initiatives and top-down structures in the implementation of regional development policies and projects are complex in theoretical and practical terms. Using concepts such as transformative social innovation, adaptive governance, and bridging institutions, we developed an analytical framework to enhance understanding of the processes by which local top-down and bottom-up forces enhance sustainable rural development by co-developing bottom-linked governance.
Se presenta el concepto de red local de gestión del conocimiento como base de los Sistemas de Innovación Local. Las redes se ven como una forma de incorporar vínculos e interacciones que hacen posible, en lo local, regional y nacional, la existencia de economías externas y rendimientos crecientes.
La riqueza y la desigualdad continúan aumentando en todo el mundo, y aunque la última representa un desafío muy serio, la primera ofrece oportunidades para atender disparidades sociales y económicas que merecen ser analizadas. El sector filantrópico, como cualquier otro, muestra limitaciones y problemas, pero también ha brindado resultados e impactos significativos en áreas tan relevantes como educación, salud, pobreza, agricultura y ambiente, por citar algunos.
Este ejercicio investigativo reflexiona sobre la conexión entre la apropiación social del conocimiento, la innovación social y la participación ciudadana, como elementos de la innovación social democrática, a partir del análisis de dos iniciativas generadas por participantes del programa de formación, implementado en los municipios de Clemencia y María la Baja (Bolívar-Colombia), en el marco de los Laboratorios Vivos de Innovación y Cultura.