Knowledge Portal

This factsheet discusses the Kiziba seedbank in Uganda, established in June 2010. The seedbank was part of a project to improve the productivity and resilience of seeds for farmers through enhanced use of crop varietal diversity, focusing on common bean and banana. The project aimed to fill the gap in seed diversity and good seed quality. The project built on the intraspecific diversity that was available on farm to reduce the pressure of pests and diseases, and on farmers’ knowledge to develop new low-cost and sustainable methods and management practices to increase diversity. »

This series of Technical Guidance Documents by FAO and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) addresses the need for mainstreaming biodiversity and ecosystem services into agriculture, at the national level. More specifically, it is aimed to assist countries in developing and implementing their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSA Ps), to consider ecosystem services – and opportunities for their management – in agricultural production systems. »

This article demonstrates the potential to track smallholder maize yield variation in western Kenya, using a combination of 1-m imagery and intensive field sampling on thousands of fields over 2 years. The emergence of satellite sensors that can routinely observe millions of individual smallholder farms raises possibilities for monitoring and understanding agricultural productivity in many regions of the world. »

This article discusses role of social protection programming design and implementation to ensure gender equality in food security and agricultural productivity. Gender inequality continues to constrain women’s opportunities in the agricultural sector. However, investment in gender-responsive programming which promotes women’s empowerment can help to overcome these constraints. »

This info note provides an account on gender division of labor in livestock production and household activities in Colombia. Even though men and women undertake the production in the livestock sector jointly, the roles and responsibilities in livestock production and household maintenance are segregated along gender lines. The policy consideration of both men’s and women’s direct and indirect contributions to livestock production is crucial to avoid any unintended climate change policy consequences and ensure successful response to technology adoption. »

This paper in the Animal Genetic Resources Journal, characterizes dairy production systems in India, Tanzania, Kenya and Nicaragua, and describes the genetic and breeding technologies that hold promise for the advancement of global development goals. In all the countries, enhanced and adequately planned use of breeding and reproductive technologies, complemented with the relevant infrastructure, is needed to sustainably increase dairy productivity. »