Items tagged:
Smallholder farmers
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Madagascar needs agroforestry businesses in its response to climate change
Madagascar’s forests are under increasing pressure from agricultural expansion, in an increasingly erratic climate. Agroforestry could be a key part of a response
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International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples (INMIP)
The International Network of Mountain Indigenous Peoples (INMIP) brings together mountain communities from 11 countries as they seek to revitalise biocultural heritage for climate-resilient and sustainable food systems. IIED provides communications, advocacy and capacity support for INMIP.
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Building transparency and trust into smallholder commodity trading and contract farming
Smallholder farmers have long had difficulties getting a fair price for their produce. A recent IIED webinar discussed how linking farmers to commodity exchanges and an ‘incentive-based’ contract farming (IBCF) approach can help improve farmer-buyer relations and establish more transparent trading arrangements
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As climate changes, Himalayan farmers return to traditional crops
Traditional crops and innovations are offering Himalayan farmers a way to deal with the challenges of climate change, but there is much work to be done for this to become a truly viable alternative
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IIED webinar: Incentive-based contract farming and agricultural commodities exchanges
Join our webinar on 3 October 2018 to discuss experiences of supporting farmers in contract farming arrangements
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Supporting small-scale farmers in negotiations with agribusiness
Unequal bargaining power often characterises the relationship between small-scale rural producers and agribusinesses. A recent IIED webinar discussed ways to protect and support farmers when negotiating with companies
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IIED webinar: How to support small-scale farmers in negotiations with agribusiness
Join our webinar on 16 April 2018 to discuss how small-scale farmers can be supported when negotiating with companies.
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Growing rice needs more than soil and water
Research in West Africa finds that smallholder farmers are not benefiting enough from investments in irrigation because they are not getting access to the agriculture services they need
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The SDGs speak and we like what we hear
Smallholder and community carbon projects have shown they can deliver local benefits and promote climate resilience. Now the Plan Vivo Standard and its partners, representing the oldest ethical carbon standard, have pledged their commitment to the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals
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2014: the International Year of Family Farming
See how IIED's work during the International Year of Family Farming helped to raise the profile of family and smallholder farming and its contribution to eradicating hunger, reducing rural poverty and more
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First international gathering of forest producer organisations underway
The representatives of farmer and forest producer organizations from around the world are gathering today at an international conference held in Guilin, China
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Smallholder innovation for resilience (SIFOR)
IIED worked with partners in China, India, Kenya and Peru to revitalise traditional knowledge-based – or 'biocultural' – innovation systems of smallholder farmers in order to strengthen food security in the face of climate change. Traditional farmers continually improve and adapt their crops and farming practices in response to new challenges, using local knowledge and biodiversity, generating new technologies and practices
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Introduction to building greater local control and resilience into agricultural and food systems
IIED is working to promote farming systems that are sustainable, productive and resilient – and to support smallholder farmers and farmer-led innovation
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African land deals: Is a policy shift underway?
African governments have played a key role in allocating land to investors. Recent developments hold out promise for more carefully thought out approaches by them in the future.
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Share the love this Valentine’s day with fairer flowers and chocolates
Here’s a step by step guide to the issues so you can both impress your lover with lovely blooms or choccies and your new-found knowledge on how to share the love more widely.
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Ensuring small holders aren't squeezed out of agricultural investments
Tipping the Balance, a new report, has discovered that current popular policies can tip the balance away from small farmers. How can we ensure small holder farmers get a better deal?
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Agricultural Research for Development: Are we moving in the right direction?
How far have researchers progressed in including smallholder farmers and NGOs in setting research objectives and making decisions?
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How markets can bloom for Africa's smallholder farmers
New deals between flower-growers in Kenya and big retailers such as Walmart offer African farmers a chance to expand.
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Democratising food and agricultural research
IIED's action-research work aimed to help farmers ensure agricultural research better meets farmer's needs and priorities
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Provocation 6: Rural youth today, farmers tomorrow?
This seminar is the sixth in a series being initiated by the IIED /HIVOS Knowledge Programme: Small Producer Agency in Globalised Markets.
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5-step guide to help farmers evaluate agriculture’s hidden heroes
Smallholder farmers will soon be better able to weigh up the cost and benefits of adopting new practices that support some of the most overlooked contributors to global food security — the insects and other animals that pollinate their crops and boost yields.
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Provocation 5: Pro-poor business, development and smallholder empowerment
The fifth in a series of seminars on markets and small-scale farmers took place in Brussels, Belgium on 22 June 2011. View video and reports from the event
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Investing in smallholders and workers is good for business
Across the developing world, food systems and supply chains are changing — exports are rising, particularly in fresh foods, supermarkets are playing an increasingly important role and there is a growing number of standards for safety, ethics and environment.
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Provocation 4: Making markets work for smallholders or wage labour?
The fourth in a series of six seminars on markets and small-scale farmers took place in Manchester, United Kingdom on 25 May 2011.
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A growing call for organisation
In The Hague, Stockholm and Paris we have heard the call for more support to producer organisations through which small-scale farmers can have a voice in the market. This call was re-iterated at the latest IIED/HIVOS provocation ‘Making markets work for smallholders or wage labour?’ — held in Manchester, United Kingdom, last week, in collaboration with The University of Manchester.
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Fast track out of poverty: farm labour or smallholder?
When IIED and Hivos launched their ‘provocation’ seminars late
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Markets for the poor: the gap between theory and practice
Within development circles, there’s a common, if recent, mantra that the key to reducing poverty in the global South lies in investing in agriculture. Increasingly that investment focuses on building bridges between small-scale farmers and private markets in approaches known as ‘markets for the poor’.
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Can small-scale farmers feed the world?
The world’s food systems are being squeezed from all sides: rising populations and shifting diets are increasing the global demand for food, while food production is increasingly compromised by climate change and land degradation.
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Supporting small-scale farmers: rights or markets?
Development support for small-scale farmers must be based on both the enforcement of basic human rights and a pro-poor development of markets.
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Supporting smallholders: markets, rights, or sovereignty?
But, according to one speaker at the event, smallholders aren’t helped by either.
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Provocation 3: Making markets work for the poor - contents and discontents
The third in a series of six seminars on markets and small-scale farmers took place in Paris, France on 30 March 2011.
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Provocation 2: Rights-based versus market-based development
The second in a series of six seminars on markets and small-scale farmers took place in Stockholm, Sweden on 3 March 2011. Watch video of the event.
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Carbon and labels: an unhappy marriage?
Agriculture is just one of the sectors in which carbon labelling — the labelling of a product to show how much carbon (and other greenhouse gases) have been emitted during its ‘lifecycle’ — is being used to show how individual products contribute to climate change. The logic behind applying carbon labels to agriculture seems sound enough: agriculture accounts for 10 to 12 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and produces much of the food we eat and the products we buy. Finding a way to tell consumers how much individual agricultural products contribute to this should encourage them to choose those products with the lowest carbon footprint and help make agriculture more sustainable. But the truth is that it is very difficult to provide accurate carbon labels for agricultural products. And carbon labelling can impact farmers in the developing world in ways that don’t support development.
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Provocation 1: Producer agency and the agenda to make markets work for the poor
The first of a series of ‘provocative seminars’ on smallholders and the ‘pro-poor markets’ agenda took place in The Hague, the Netherlands, on 28th September 2010. Local and international participants gathered to discuss a series of questions put forward by ‘provocateurs’ from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
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Making markets work for small-scale farmers? A series of ‘provocation’ seminars
IIED, Hivos and collaborating institutions organised a travelling series of ‘provocation’ seminars to challenge conventional wisdom on how to include smallholders in markets and bring fresh perspectives to the discussion on what works and why.
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Has agriculture been a winner in the economic downturn?
While the downturn has hit many economic sectors hard, have farmers prospered?
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Turning the spotlight on agriculture
Have we glimpsed real signs of economic recovery?
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Small producers in the global market
Globalisation, and particularly the food crises of 2007-2008 and 2010-11, have renewed interest in agriculture and small-scale producers.
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Food and farming futures for small producers and indigenous peoples
The food sovereignty paradigm affirms the fundamental right of peoples to define their food and agricultural policies.
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Peasant Seeds: the foundation of food sovereignty in Africa
A multimedia publication released in Bamako today, 11th December 2008, captures the deep concern among West African farmers about the privatisation of seeds and knowledge
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New business models for sustainable trade
Millions of farmers in Africa depend on export markets for their livelihoods. But recent market trends have led to declining small farmer participation. Yet, these farmers have the skill and soil to provide the high-quality products the food industry seeks. This collaborative initiative engaged with research, civil society and private sector partners to develop new business models across a variety of sectors that enable smallholders to participate in sustainable trading relationships with international businesses and thereby improve their livelihoods.
