Though Odisha is India’s top sweetpotato-producing state, most farmers grow low-yielding varieties of limited nutritional value. The Odisha Directorate of Horticulture and the International Potato Center (CIP) spent four years promoting improved varieties and good agricultural practices in four districts of Odisha, resulting in a 25 per cent growth in the area dedicated to the crop, a 17 per cent increase in farm productivity, and a 40 per cent increase in farmer incomes within the project areas; as well as the introduction of a nutritious, orange-fleshed sweetpotato variety.
A network of women farmers’ leaders is set to drive widespread adoption of innovations and technologies across India. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), together with the Department of Biotechnology of India’s Ministry of Science and Technology, are training women farmer leaders on advanced rice production and soft skills to help boost food security in India.
Innovation is the process whereby individuals or organizations bring new or existing products, processes or ways of organization into use for the first time in a specific context. Innovation in agriculture cuts across all dimensions of the production cycle along the entire value chain - from crop, forestry, fishery or livestock production to the management of inputs and resources to market access. This book represents the proceedings of the first International Symposium on Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers which FAO organized at its headquarters in Rome, on 21–23 November 2018.
These presentations have been used during the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at the side event "Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Systems for Family Farming. Multi-stakeholder processes to develop capacities to innovate for food and nutrition security", held on 17 October 2019.
The side event pointed out that:
- Innovation is the driving force that can transform food systems and lift family farmers out of poverty to help the world achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
This report describes the main themes and issues discussed during the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at the side event "Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Systems for Family Farming. Multi-stakeholder processes to develop capacities to innovate for food and nutrition security", which took place on Thursday 17 October 2019 at FAO Headquarters (Rome, Italy).
This paper proposes the adoption of small-scale friendly postharvest techniques in the form of small-scale postharvest practices (SSPPs). To justify this proposal, the impact of SSPPs adoption on self-reported losses were investigated in Rivers State Nigeria. The factors influencing plantain farmers and traders intention to use SSPPs were also studied. Multistage and snowball sampling techniques were used to obtain data from farmers and traders, respectively
Increasing on-farm production diversity and improving markets are recognized as ways to improve the dietary diversity of smallholders. Using instrumental variable methods to account for endogeneity, this paper studies the interplay of production diversity, markets and diets in the context of seasonality in Afghanistan. Accordingly to the authors improved crop diversity over the year is positively associated with dietary diversity in the regular season, but not in the lean season.
The paper analyses the linkages that prevail between women’s empowerment, agriculture and household consumption, through a case study of an initiative for empowerment of women farmers, Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP), undertaken by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), which became a government-funded national-level programme in 2010..
This book is an informative volume written by international experts in the fieldPresents recent advances in sustainable agriculture research and development focuses on environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems. This volume is a ready reference on sustainable agriculture and reinforce the understanding for its utilization to develop environmentally sustainable and profitable food production systems.
Banana and plantain are one of the most important staple food crops and a significant source of income to smallholder farmers in the East African Great Lakes Region. Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) is a devastating bacterial disease that threatens smallholder production and livelihoods. We use a systems approach to describe how gender shapes roles and practices in the household, on the farm and in innovation processes. We draw on a case study in Burundi, where single disease stem removal (SDSR) has been introduced as a labour-saving package to reduce BXW incidence.