FROM FARMERS’ FIELDS TO RIO+20: AGRO-ECOLOGY WORKS!

Farming Mattters | 28.2| June 2012 This special issue of Farming Matters provides an overview of the importance of small-scale farming and of an agro-ecological approach to agriculture, looking in detail at four key areas: food security, poverty alleviation, energy and climate change. We do not know yet what the outcome of Rio+20 will be. But … Read more

“We can talk about a paradigm shift”

Rio+20 has sparked international attention to sustainable agricultural development, but this has been a point of attention for many people for years. Agricultural sociologist, Ann Waters‑Bayer was for a long time involved in the production of the ILEIA Newsletter and the LEISA Magazine. She is now part of Prolinnova, a “Global Partnership Programme” under the … Read more

Lessons learned from Nhambita

In many developing countries, smallholder biofuel production and use is perceived as a promising economic opportunity to meet rural energy demands, and also as a catalyst for socio-economic development. An exploratory study in the Nhambita community in Mozambique, one of the first communities that planted Jatropha curcas at the Mozambican government’s request, analysed the potential … Read more

Theme overview – Twenty years later

Where are we? Where are we going? – Twenty years after the first Earth Summit in 1992, Rio de Janeiro is hosting another major UN conference. This provides an opportunity to look at the progress achieved and to discuss the issues that have emerged in recent years. This time, the underlying themes of the conference … Read more

Agricultural metabolism as a tool

Manuel Gonzalez de Molina – Manuel Gonzalez de Molina Navarro works as Professor in the Department of Contemporary History at the University Pablo de Olavide (Seville), where he directs the Laboratory of Agro-ecosystems History. He proposes the use of “social metabolism” as a tool and perspective to describe and analyse the relationship between nature and … Read more

Feeding the world in the twenty-first century

Over the last two decades of the 20th century, a global movement took shape with the aim of defending and promoting more sustainable forms of agricultural production. Resulting from a decentralised and diversified movement, and building on the work of millions of farmers all over the world, agro‑ecology emphasises the development and maintenance of complex … Read more

Farmers in focus: More than higher yields

Livestock has traditionally been an integral part of the farming systems in the Indian Himalayan region, but farmers regularly face an acute seasonal shortage of fodder, resulting in low milk yields, poor livestock health, women drudgery and forest degradation. Now, over 8,000 households in the hill districts of Uttarakhand are part of a programme of … Read more