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What is family farming? How can it help meet the challenges confronting the world? How can it contribute to a sustainable and more equitable development? Not only is family farming the predominant form of agriculture around the world, especially so in developing countries, it is also the agriculture of the future. By declaring 2014 the “International Year of Family Farming,” the United Nations has placed this form of production at the center of debates on agricultural development. These debates are often reduced to two opposing positions. The first advocates the development of industrial or company agriculture, supposedly efficient because it follows industrial processes for market-orien...
Based on new evidence from in-depth field surveys, this book addresses the unique situation of countries that remain deeply engaged in agriculture, and proposes a set of policy orientations which could facilitate the process of rural change.
Good management of water resources - universally identified as a key aspect of poverty reduction, agriculture and food security - has proven, in practice, as difficult to achieve as it is eagerly sought. This book, edited and authored by leading authorities on water resource management, examines the recent changes in governance, institutions, economics and policies of water, covering developing, transitional and developed countries, with special emphasis on southern African case studies. The book examines how water policies, institutions and governance have shifted in recent years from supply-driven, quantitative, centrally controlled management to more demand-sensitive, decentralized, parti...
Analysing the ongoing changes and dynamics in rural development from a functional perspective through a series of case studies from the global north and south, this volume deepens our understanding of the importance of new functional and multifunctional approaches in policy, practice and theory. In rural areas of industrialized societies, food production as a basis for growth and employment has been declining for many decades. In the Global South, on the other hand, food production is still often the most important factor for socio-economic development. However, rural areas both in the industrialized north and in the global south are facing new challenges which lead to significant changes and threats to their development. New forms of food production, but also new functional (e.g. housing or business parks) and often multifunctional approaches are being discussed and practiced yet it remains unclear the extent to which these result in better or more sustainable development of rural areas.
The world’s population is expected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050. Meanwhile, concurrent rises inincomes and urbanization are driving increased consumption of meat, dairy, and biofuels.Meeting the demand for food, feed, and biofuel will require a global production increase of almost50 percent relative to 2012. Production in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa—where 95 percentof farms are smaller than five hectares—must double at a minimum.A key element of policies to increase food production will be promoting improved food quality,as the health costs of too much, too little, and the wrong types of food become increasinglyevident. Additional initiatives must address how to reduce food losse...