Agro-forestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. Agro-forestry is a dynamic, ecologically-based, natural resource management practice that,…
Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an agro-ecosystems management approach aimed at improving and sustaining agricultural productivity, increasing profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. CA is characterised by three interrelated principles.
Integrated agriculture provides high quality food and other products by using natural resources and regulating mechanisms rather than polluting chemical inputs to secure sustainable farming. The agronomic techniques and biological / physical / chemical methods are carefully selected and balanced taking into account the health of people (i.e. farmers and…
This section addresses integrated farming approaches that have been promoted as alternatives to Green Revolution agriculture since the 1990s for self-sufficient farming. The New Theory farming system in Thailand and the VAC system in Vietnam (VAC in Vietnamese is Vuon, Ao, Chuong which means “garden/pond/ livestock pen”) consist in highly…
Organic agriculture aims at sustaining the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and natural cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of chemical inputs with potentially adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote…
The System of Rice Intensification, known as SRI is an agro-ecological approach for increasing rice productivity (and more recently other crops) by changing the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients.
ALiSEA Online Library contains a wide range of agro-ecology’s documents: backgrounds, case Studies and initiatives fact sheets, presentations, policy documents, toolkits and IEC Materials. All documents are searchable via their Agro-ecological School(s), country, or type. Access now.
The Agroecology Futures Regional Forum is fast approaching. It is time to gear up and decide how you want to participate… In addition to the several plenary sessions and parallel discussions, we have organized other modalities for all participants to actively contribute and share their experience: A call for posters with a dedicated poster session on the 7th of November afternoon A photo contest about Agroecology with a public display during the whole forum and an awarding ceremony on the 8th of November A seed swap to embrace the biodiversity of the Mekong Region and beyond organized on the 8th November afternoon A knowledge and innovation fair to share or demonstrate any materials or approaches related to agroecology on 7th and 8th of November Call for posters You are actively involved in promoting and disseminating agroecology and you would like to share your experience, research findings, or methodological approaches? We are warmly encouraging you to send us an abstract for poster under the following 5 different themes: 1/ Agroecology in practices From organic production to landscape approach, integrated farming, conservation agriculture, agroforestry, crop – livestock integration, to integrated pest management… Agroecology covers many practices, all relying on plant diversity, ecological […]
MELA is an alliance formed to provide a forum for exchanges of agriculture extension and other important information on rural development in the Mekong region. The mission of MELA is to be a network for all stakeholders in agriculture and rural development in the Mekong Region to continuously learn and share knowledge and best practices with each other and from outside sources in advisory services for sustainable agriculture, marketing and rural development. MELA was initiated by representatives of the Mekong countries at the Workshop on ‘Reaching the Millions’, funded by SDC and organized by Helvetas in cooperation with GFRAS, which was taken place in Hanoi in March 2015. These participants acknowledged the value of regional networking and agreed to meet again to share experience and explore opportunities for further cooperation. In this regard, MELA was inaugurated in Lao PDR during first meeting held in August 2015. The second MELA meeting was organized in June 2016 in Yangon, Myanmar, while the third MELA meeting was organized in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2017.The Fourth MELA meeting has been held from 20-24 August 2018 in Nonthaburi, Thailand Objectives of the Meeting: Updating and redefining common interests of members; Revising a draft charter for […]
Organized by: Gret, Cirad and the General Directorate of Agriculture in Cambodia in partnership with ALiSEA and CANSEA Funded by AFD Context ASEAN countries are following a path of intensification due to rising demands for agricultural products that increase pressure to simplify crop production and agricultural landscapes, increasing the vulnerability to climate change and promotion of monoculture crops. Such vulnerabilities are even exacerbated under some agroecological zones where most agriculture is rain-fed and climate change has a potentially large influence on productivity and profitability. Depending on their respective history, demographic changes, economic development patterns and agroecological potential of their landscapes, agriculture intensification has evolved at different pace and had variable ecological and social impacts throughout the region (i.e., land degradation and biodiversity depletion associated with the generalization of input-intensive cropping practices). In lowlands and floodplains, rice production can be increasingly constrained by water scarcity and climatic events (i.e., floods, drought, and sea level rise in the deltas). High dependency on energy, technologies, engineered landscapes, and infrastructures may also increase the fragility of the rice farming systems. In addition, climate change has become an important issue for countries and regions exposed to extreme flooding and/or drought. Rice farming is facing a […]
