Global

This magazine illustrates how the collective creation of knowledge lies at the heart of agro-ecology rooted in family farming. It presents stories of diverse actors who have jointly created agro-ecological solutions that are suited to their own, local contexts. Agro-ecology can be seen as knowledge-intensive and for successful outcomes the combination of different types of knowledge is essential. In the context of climate change, knowledge co-creation is especially relevant and urgent since developing climate resilient agriculture needs knowledge related to locally rooted adaptation strategies. »

Consultant to the Donor Platform Jim Woodhill explored questions around inclusive agribusiness in a webinar on 5th July 2016, where he shared the results of his background working paper on inclusive agribusiness, including recommendations for donors. One of the key messages is that there are numerous inclusive agribusiness-related projects/businesses that have generated a broad base of practitioners with a growing understanding of how to put inclusive agribusiness models into practice. »

This paper by Nature.com assesses the role of trees on agricultural land and their significance for carbon sequestration at a global level, along with recent change trends. Agroforestry systems and tree cover on agricultural land make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not systematically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or national carbon accounting. Remote sensing data show that in 2010, 43% of all agricultural land globally had at least 10% tree cover and that this has increased by 2% over the previous ten years. »

This report addresses various recommendations to deal with the current El Nino and the forecast of La Nina. According to Oxfam, El Nino was a broadly preventable crisis and the severity of El Nino’s impacts is a reflection of the world’s failure to provide comprehensive and long-term strategies to anticipate, prepare and adapt. To end this cycle of failure, there is an urgent need for humanitarian action where the situation is already dire, to prepare for La Niña later this year, to commit to comprehensive new measures to build communities’ resilience, and to mobilize global action to address climate change. »

This review of literature reveals that there are many opportunities to increase women’s economic empowerment beyond interventions focused on production. While there is a wealth of information related to women’s economic empowerment through production, there is limited available data related to best practices and promising approaches for women’s empowerment at other value chain levels. This literature review aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining approaches to empower women or increase their incomes in the value chain outside of production. »

This paper presents an aligned yet customizable framework of indicators for measuring farm-level sustainability in smallholder agricultural supply chains. These indicators are proposed primarily in the context of performance measurement, but can also be useful for more in-depth impact evaluation studies. The ideas presented here are drawn from recent fieldwork of food and beverage companies, standards organizations, NGOs, and development agencies, and were synthesized as part of a community of practice led and facilitated by the Sustainable Food Lab. »