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Globally connected: News from the AgriCultures Network
December 22nd, 2015

Members of the AgriCultures Network are working together to advance family farming and agroecology. Here is our latest update. FAO’s regional symposium on agroecology for the Sub-Saharan Africa region took place in Senegal (Dakar) Nov. 5 & 6, preceded by civil society meetings on November 3 and 4. Representatives of the AgriCultures Network from Ethiopia … Read more

Call for articles: Valuing underutilised crops
December 22nd, 2015

Deadline: 1 April 2016. As family farming, nutrition and agrobiodiversity are increasingly put in the spotlight, Farming Matters focuses its attention on ‘underutilised’ crops. These are plant species that have been used for centuries or even millennia as food, fibre, fodder, oil or medicine, but are no longer very common. Many of these crops are … Read more

WOMEN FORGING CHANGE WITH AGROECOLOGY
December 22nd, 2015

Farming Matters | 31.4 | December 2015 This issue of Farming Matters presents stories about women from all over the world who are forging positive change through agroecology on their farms and in their communities. Many innovations led by women are based on agroecological principles such as increasing diversity, using fewer pesticides, or building new … Read more

Bringing ‘life’ back to the food system in Spain
December 22nd, 2015

By prioritising human and non-human life over economic profit, and cooperation over competition, citizens of the city of Cordoba have been able to transform their food system into a thriving network of local food producers and consumers. Women have been at the forefront of this movement. In only a few decades, industrial agriculture in southern … Read more

SRI cultivates well-being for women
December 22nd, 2015

It is said that ‘rice is grown on women’s backs’. Globally, around a billion people cultivate rice, of which 50 to 90 percent are women. With conventional practices, they perform backbreaking tasks like seedling removal, transplanting and weeding in bent posture and under wet conditions for more than 1000 hours per hectare. In addition, they … Read more

Four rural women leaders: The land is our life
December 22nd, 2015

In this interview, and four short videos, we asked four rural women leaders and activists from Asia and Africa about the role of women in agroecology. What we found were stories of race, caste, patriarchal systems, land grabbing, statelessness and, as an overriding theme, the lack of land ownership for women. These women are part … Read more

Perspectives: Shifting African policy towards women and agroecology
December 22nd, 2015

The role of rural women and smallholder farmers in African society has been highly undervalued. This is so despite the fact that around 80% of Africa’s population is dependent on smallholder agriculture, it is the backbone of the rural economy, and women provide over two-thirds of the farm labour. There is clear evidence that agroecology … Read more

Young Bedouin women can become key actors in their communities
December 22nd, 2015

Born in a rural Bedouin community in North Sinai Governorate, Egypt, Yasmina Atta grew up in a culture that heavily restricts the roles of women. Undeterred by this oppression, she started to support young women in claiming their rights and becoming relevant economic and political actors. I was born in a rural Bedouin community in … Read more

The Mexican star at the US farmers’ market
December 22nd, 2015

Nelida Martinez, from Oaxaca, Mexico, came to pick berries in the USA. Now, against all odds, she is the owner and operator of her own organic farm. Through a farm business incubator, Nelida was able to rent land, and now produces organic food that she sells at farmers’ markets in the Skagit Valley area. “We … Read more