certification

This blog discusses the impact of the Sustainable Land Management Program. This is an innovative approach to restoring degraded land, which combines security of tenure for Ethiopia’s farmers with better management of the country’s natural resources. »

This article assessed the effect of using certified seed potato (CSP) on yield, input use, and food security among smallholder farmers. The recent development of rapid seed multiplication technique has helped to shorten the duration of CSP production and increase the supply of seed. Results indicate that use of CSP is associated with increased yields, sales, and hence income. In addition, users of CSP were less food insecure than their counterparts. »

Using concepts of multifunctionality and agrarian change, this paper examines the implications of introducing an international environmental certification programme to a site where the ‘peasantry’ has been preserved and has limited integration in the global agro-food system. Drawing on a case study that examines the first certified organic shrimp production project in Vietnam, this paper concludes that the current movement towards post-productivism in the global North has potential to keep local farming practices in the global South by justifying the value of peasant-like production methods through international certification. »

This article analyses the effect of specialty coffee certification on income diversification of smallholders and questions the benefits of this certification for them. Smallholder coffee producers are responsible for 80% of global coffee production and need farm certification to access specialty coffee markets. Although rural households are known to depend on more than agricultural production alone, the literature on specialty coffee and certification has rather narrowly focused on coffee income and production. In this study, broader impacts are explicitly taken into account. »

This working paper aims to show how the right to food can be ensured in local biomass production and through certification systems in food insecure regions. The authors argue that until now food security aspects of biomass-based economies are hardly addressed because practical criteria and indicators are lacking. »

Research into seafood buying behaviour around the world shows that consumers are increasingly looking for fish products from a sustainable source, and that ecolabels give credibility to these claims. For this research, over 9,000 regular seafood buyers from 15 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia and North America were questioned. »