| Focus on |
Cooperative enterprises - paradox or panacea?
 Lessons learned from Oxfam's Enterprise Development Programme highlight the need for business management, gender and environmental support, in strengthening small and medium enterprises to succeed in the face of numerous challenges. read article |
Lessons from Timor-Leste's ancient cooperative tradition
 In Timor-Leste, traditional ceremonies are being promoted as a means of cementing collective decisions on access to fishing areas, land and forest resources. By recording written versions of these ceremonies, an FAO-implemented programme is working towards formal recognition of these community decisions. read article |
Regaining ground for Malawi's groundnuts
 Exports of Malawian groundnuts were halted in the 1970s because of aflatoxin contamination. Since 2005, however, the trade has been resumed, following detection and control improvements facilitated by the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi, in partnership with ICRISAT. read article |
A fair share for Peru's alpaca producers
 Alpaca keepers in the Peruvian Andes are improving their power in the marketplace through collective grading and selling of fleeces and fibre. read article |
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| GFAR: Research innovations |
Niche market for Honduras cocoa
 The superior genetic quality of Honduran cocoa, which makes it perfect for high value confectionery, has prompted a partnership between 700 smallscale farmers and Chocolats Halba, a Swiss chocolate-maker. As a result, Honduran chocolate can be found on the shelves of one of Switzerland's biggest retailers, and farmers are, for the first time, benefiting from having a direct link to international buyers. read article |
Making markets work for women in Bangladesh
 Tribal women from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts have used market surveys, improved negotiation skills and donkey transport to transform their engagement with high value fruit and vegetable markets. read article |
Linking smallholders to buyers: the inclusive business model approach
 The adoption of the value-chain approach over the past decade has provided a broad framework for supporting smallholder-market linkages through improved value-chain partnerships. Building on this approach, more recent efforts have focused on 'inclusive business models' which focus on the weakest link in many value chains, the smallholder to first buyer linkage. read article |
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| Developments |
Trapping rats in Vietnam
 Widely regarded in Vietnam as being cleverer than humans, rats are responsible for eating and damaging rice crops, spreading disease to people and livestock, and causing structural damage to grainstores. But 20,000 rice farmers in the Red River Delta have reduced rat damage by 93 per cent and increased rice yields by 10-14 per cent. read article |
Climate challenge for urban water supplies
 In Bulawayo, western Zimbabwe, years of scarce rainfall have forced residents to learn about water saving the hard way. Low dam levels have led to hosepipe bans, water rationing and interruptions in supply. Such pressures have, however, led to the adoption of numerous water saving activities throughout the city, as well as investment in securing new supplies. read article |
Unleashing the energy in waste
 Ghana's private sector is leading a number of green initiatives to harness clean and modern technologies to enhance sustainable development. Waste-to-compost and fecal sludge-to-biodiesel plants, as well as plastic waste recycling schemes, are helping to eliminate the indiscriminate dumping of waste into the environment. read article |
Rwanda's efforts to adapt to climate change
 The Rwandan government has developed a strategy to become a climate resilient, low carbon economy by mainstreaming climate change response into its development strategy and across key sectors. A primary focus of this is transforming the agricultural sector, encouraging smallscale farmers to change how and what types of crops they produce. read article |
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| Points of view |
Smallscale livestock keeping - a sustainable future?
 Smallscale livestock keeping may not be delivering the expect benefits in poverty alleviation. Participants at the Livestock Futures conference share their views about the importance of the sector and how to achieve a sustainable future for smallscale livestock keepers. read article |
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| In pictures |
Innovating against hunger
 From chickpea harvests in the Ethiopian highlands to the market gardens of the Sahel and the rice and millet fields of India, photographs from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and partners highlight technical and social innovations that are empowering smallholder farmers to improve productivity and tackle food insecurity. read article |
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| My perspective |
 Jérôme Bossuet
Jérôme Bossuet of ICRISAT believes that, with global supply of phosphate rock having an uncertain future, and with standard fertiliser application an inappropriate option for most farmers in the South, alternative options must be found. More targeted fertiliser usage, recycling of nutrients in waste, and use of legumes to free up insoluble phosphorous in the soil, are some of his suggestions. read article |
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| Country profile |
Mauritius
 Mauritius is a small, but densely populated, island situated in the Indian Ocean, about 800 kilometres east of Madagascar. Ranked third in Africa by the UN's Human Development Index, severe poverty is rare, yet price hikes, slumps in global food supply and climate change are significant risks that Mauritius faces as a net food importer. read article |
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| GFAR updates |
 GFAR present a selection of brief news items based around recent international and regional events and meetings concerned with agricultural innovation and its implications in development. read article |
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| News brief |
 Recent news, including displaced pastoralists in northern Kenya, the winner of the World Food Prize, groundwater mapping for drought mitigation, and a stark warning to maize and bean farmers in four Central American countries. read article |
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| Book reviews |
 Reviews of some of the latest agriculture and rural development publications, including One billion hungry: Can we feed the world? by Gordon Conway. read article |
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