Natural resource management practices, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), have been proposed to tackle agricultural challenges such as decreasing productivity growth and environmental degradation. Yet, the benefits of system technologies for farmers are often debated. Impacts seem to be context-specific, which is especially relevant in the small farm sector with its large degree of agroecological and socioeconomic heterogeneity. This was not always considered in previous research.
Food systems contribute 19%–29% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, releasing 9,800–16,900 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2008. Agricultural production, including indirect emissions associated with land-cover change, contributes 80%–86% of total food system emissions, with significant regional variation. The impacts of global climate change on food systems are expected to be widespread, complex, geographically and temporally variable, and profoundly influenced by socioeconomic conditions.
Extension and advisory services (EAS) perform an important role in agricultural development and help reduce hunger and poverty. Development efforts are increasingly complicated because of challenges such as natural resource depletion and climate change. Agricultural development frameworks have moved from a linear to a more complex systems perspective. Many scholars today use the agricultural innovation systems (AIS) framework as a conceptual model.
The new challenges facing the European agricultural and rural sectors call for a review of the links between knowledge production and its use to foster innovation, and for a deeper analysis of the potential of the current Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) to react to the evolving context. This paper highlights how the Italian AKIS places itself in the new emerging framework, with a particular emphasis on the incentives guiding the system and the experiences of monitoring and evaluating the national AKIS policy.
In order to realize the potential of agricultural innovation in family farming, national priorities of sustainably increasing food production and productivity, and reducing hunger and poverty, require rural knowledge institutions to be stronger and communication processes to be improved. This brief synthesizes the focus of FAO’s research and extension branch on transforming agricultural innovation systems of member countries.
Asterio P. Saliot, National Director of the Agricultural Training Institute (Department of Agriculture, Philippines), presented the RAS context of his country at the 3rd GFRAS Annual Meeting, "The Role of Rural Advisory Services in Agricultural Innovation Systems", 26-28 September 2012, Philippines.
The presentation describes the role of extension, key players and capacities needed within the context of the Philippine Agricultural Innovation System.
This paper provides a review of agronomic management practices supporting sustainable crop production systems and intensification, and testifying to developments in the selection of crops and cultivars. The paper also describes crop farming systems taking a predominantly ecosystem approach and it discusses the scientific application of this approach for the management of pest and weed populations.
This presentation is on AgriVIVO, a project aimed at facilitating better networking of individual researchers and the organizations they belong to for better collaborations and less duplication of efforts.
Le Programme 2012-2013 de l’Initiative 3N vise à :
- Accroître et diversifier les productions agro-sylvo-pastorales et halieutiques pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle des populations nigériennes;
- Augmenter les revenus des producteurs et des acteurs des filières agricoles par l’amélioration de la conservation, la transformation et la commercialisation des produits agro-alimentaires ;
- Améliorer les capacités nationales de prévention et de gestion des crises et catastrophes et la résilience des populations vulnérables.
Ce manuel est destiné aux formateurs des organisations paysannes (OP) et à leurs membres en Afrique sub-saharienne. Le but étant de fournir une formation sur les techniques et opérations après-récolte afin d’améliorer la qualité des grains et ainsi de permettre l’augmentation des revenus et l’amélioration de la sécurité alimentaire des agriculteurs participants au programme. Dans le passé, les formations sur les opérations après-récolte n’ont pas été normalisées entre les différents pays membres du programme P4P.