While interest is generated over new and emerging technologies, there is a diversity of knowledge, technologies and practices in agriculture, health care, conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and ecosystem management. Many of these support the livelihoods of small farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples and local entrepreneurs affecting millions of people and communities across the world, especially in developing countries. In many cases, national industries have developed from traditional knowledge and endogenous technologies.There are thus vast potential and promises in these sustainable systems and practices, requiring investment and mainstreaming into development policies at the national, regional and international level. A holistic approach to technology assessment and choice would develop sophisticated principles, criteria and indicators that enable countries to benefit from sustainable production and conservation systems.

Organic and Diverse Non-Rice Food Systems

This is a summary report which provides an example of an organic and diverse food system in a village in Indonesia. It is a paper submitted to the FAO’s conference on organic agriculture and food security, […]

Organic Agroforestry Benefits Farming Families in Timor, Indonesia

A summary report by Yayasan Mitra Tani Mandiri (YMTM), Yayasan An Feot Ana (YAFA) and TWN on the results of an organic agroforestry programme in Timor, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. […]

Organic Agriculture Can Address Food Security, says FAO

Press articles relating to the International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security, held at the FAO in Rome from 3-5 May 2007. […]

Organic Agriculture: Proven But Needs Political Support

Report on the International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security, organized by the FAO in Rome, Italy on 3-5 May 2007. […]

Sustainable Agriculture Increases Crop Yields in Tigray, Ethiopia

The report documents the results of a 10-year experiment in sustainable development and ecological land management in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. […]

Democratising Technology

The concept of ‘technology transfer’ has long been presented as a means to address the great divide between industrialised and less industrialised countries. But just providing access to basic technologies is not enough. People need to be given control […]

Sustainable Agriculture: Critical Ecological, Social & Economic Issues

Various ecological, social and economic challenges must be addressed if agriculture is to be truly sustainable. This briefing discusses the choices facing developing countries and policy makers, and suggests some ways forward. […]

Feeding the world?

Jules Pretty, Director of the Centre for Environment and Society at the University of Essex, examines the myths and realities of sustainable farming’s quiet revolution […]

Coexistence of Agricultural Production Systems

The report concludes that voluntary GMO-free zones might be a tool for sustainable co-existence. […]

Yields rose 79% from sustainable agriculture in South

A study published in the journal ‘Environmental Science & technology’ suggests that poor farmers in developing countries can increase agricultural productivity by adopting “resource-conserving” or sustainable agriculture. […]