Agrobiodiversity@knowledged
Farming practices which use and enhance biodiversity are common, yet agriculture can also be its greatest destroyer. What role do small-scale farmer play? And how should policy-makers support them? Adding insights and evidence to these debates is the main objective of the programme started by Hivos and Oxfam Novib.
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Agro-Social Enterprises: Helping small scale farmers adapt to climate change In a context of socio-economic disparities and with the necessity for small scale farmers to adapt to climate change, new types of actors are emerging. Green Net, a social agro-based enterprise is an example of such emerging actors. One of the members of the Agrobiodiversity@knowledged programme, they have been working in various parts of Thailand to improve adaptive capacity among organic and fair trade farmers since 2007. |
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Enhancing agrobiodiversity through SRI The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is usually promoted as a successful approach for increasing productivity and decreasing costs. The Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems (CIKS) has demonstrated that SRI can also contribute to the conservation and wider dissemination of local and indigenous rice varieties, with positive outcomes for both farmers’ livelihoods and biodiversity. Read the article (Farming Matters, March 2013) |
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An interview with Valdely Kinupp, professor at Brazil's Federal Institute of Education
"We hear very often that Brazil is one of the world’s most biodiverse country, but when we look at our everyday plates we see very little of the flavor, aroma and texture of Brazilian indigenous plants on the menus." Read more |
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Enhancing livelihoods with agrobiodiversity An agrobiodiversity based initiative for enhancing the livelihood opportunities of rural households is being implemented in the mountain villages of Kumaon and Garhwal Himalayas, in India. Read more |
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Movie: Have you seen the Arana?
Songline Films are showing the effect of changing landscapes on the Indian fragile ecosystems in a documentary. Three contemporary narratives are interwoven with an ancient tribal creation myth to explore “ordinary” people's engagement with land. One of the stories is of a rice farmer committed to preserving traditional varieties of rice. “Have you seen the Arana?” portraits the landscapes and lifestyles of Wayanad, a region is witnessing a rapid transformation. Read more |
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True champions India’s small-scale farmers play a central role in feeding the country’s population of more than one billion people. Women farmers play an increasingly important role. One of these many women is Shakuntalabai Sukhdeo Mule, a champion of organic farming and biodiversity conservation. She lives in the village of Shekta, in the state of Maharashtra, a very dry part of India. Read the article (Farming Matters, December 2012) |
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International efforts
Agrobiodiversity is the main subject of many different international efforts, involving representatives and organisations in all countries. What’s being discussed, for example, as part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity? What other programmes or projects are there? Read more |
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The biodiversity dividend Many different agricultural practices contribute positively in terms of biodiversity. Joining hands and working together is clearly one of them. This was shown by Green Net, the co-op that recently hosted the participants of the Agrobiodiversity@knowledged programme in Thailand. There they also saw the benefits that biodiversity can bring to both producers and their organisations. Read the article (Farming Matters, September 2012) |
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A view from the field Why is agrobiodiversity important? Expanding the article just published in Farming Matters (issue 28.2), A.V. Balasubramanian shared some more ideas on the basis of the work of the centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, CKIS. Read more |
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Enhancing the debate for a real transformation Agricultural biodiversity is about many things: about the genes of the wide variety of plants and animals; about individuals and the systems of which they are part, about policies and practices. What does agrobiodiversity mean in practice? And how can the wide knowledge and experience that exists contribute to better policies and practices? Read the article (Farming Matters, June 2012) |
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Thika workshop The Stockholm Resilience Centre, famous for its work on socio-ecological and resilience thinking, was asked to provide an overview of the existing academic thinking and practice around agro-biodiversity and smallholders’ resilience, and to identify possible knowledge gaps. The outcome of this exercise was shared and discussed in a workshop in Thika, Kenya in October 2011. Read more (Oxfam Novib website) |
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Agrobiodiversity@knowledged Hivos and Oxfam Novib have started a programme that aims to develop the concepts and ideas concerning agricultural biodiversity, small-scale farming, rural livelihoods and climate change. Read the article (Farming Matters, March 2012) |
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