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Dealing with the uncertainties of changing climates is a challenge faced by farmers around the world. Near Cochabamba in Bolivia’s Andean high plateau, a group of agroecological farmers are leading the way by developing and sharing innovative practices that help their communities break out of the vicious cycle of increased poverty and vulnerability. But challenges remain…

In August 2012, the Seidu family had to cope with the bad harvest. Like many farming families in northern Ghana, they had to adopt the ‘one-zero-one’ strategy for the children and the ‘zero-zero-one’ strategy for themselves. ‘One’ represents a meal, ‘zero’ is no meal. So during the lean season, their four children had breakfast in the morning, nothing at midday, and a meal in the evening.

With a population of more than 28 million, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia. But it is enormously rich in terms of biodiversity and natural resources, and agriculture plays a very important role in the country’s economy. It is also very rich in another way: young people make up 40 percent of the population. The problem is that young people don’t seem to be interested in agriculture.

The area around Wum in the Northwest Province of Cameroon is notorious as a conflict hotspot. As pressure increases on available land, conflicts occur more frequently between sedentary family farmers and pastoral communities. Farmer-pastoralist alliances are helping to resolve the conflicts by transforming the relationships between these families.

This document summarises case studies from ten countries through ActionAid’s approach to climate resilient sustainable agriculture, which incorporates agroecology in a human rights framework. Based on these experiences ActionAid recommends to increase investment in agroecology, as part of a comprehensive human rights based approach: Read more

Family farmers and the many ways in which they contribute to food security, healthy landscapes and thriving rural communities can be supported in a number of ways. These are some initiatives from around the world.

Some may view indigenous communities as being conservative and backwards. However, the Kabekwa in Costa Rica show that such communities can be adaptable and innovative. Read more

Steven Kiranga Gichanga is a family farmer in Mugaari, a village in Kenya. He was trained in goat rearing but could not afford a goat to get started. He was also trained in bee keeping but could not afford a bee hive either. After a community reflection Read more

Holly Whitesides and her husband are trying to go “against the grain” of industrial agriculture in the United States. They use their family farm and their work on saving seed to convince other farmers and groups of the importance of a sovereign seed stock.