Shifting cultivation is a dominant form of farming in the eastern Himalayas, practised by a diverse group of indigenous people from the most marginalized social and economic groups. The survival of these indigenous people and the survival of their forests are inextricably linked. However, policy makers and natural resource managers perceive shifting cultivation to be wasteful, destructive to forests, and unsustainable.
Secure tenure rights and control over land for women and men farmers are key to boosting smallholder productivity, rural development and food security. However, in many parts of the world, men and women have inadequate access to secure property rights over land. Women are particularly disadvantaged: even though they constitute on average 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, women’s ownership of agricultural land remains significantly lower than that of men.
Degradation of forests can have severe negative local impacts and far-reaching consequences, including soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, dust storms, diminished livelihood opportunities and reduced yields of forest products and services. Reversing the adverse conditions requires urgent and scaled-up action, through scientific and holistic landscape-level restoration approaches, balancing both socio-economic and environmental goals and the diverse needs of various sectors and stakeholders in the landscape.
This issue contains stories on country level activities and news and updates on events, publications and trainings relater to the gender work in FAO in Asia and the Pacific. There is a report on FAO's contribution to the Sustainable Development Goal Five (SDG5) and a feature article on Isan Indigenous Thai Silk Yarn production.
For rural women and men, land is often the most important household asset for supporting agricultural production and providing food security and nutrition. Evidence shows that secure land tenure is strongly associated with higher levels of investment and productivity in agriculture – and therefore with higher incomes and greater economic wellbeing. Secure land rights for women are often correlated with better outcomes for them and their families, including greater bargaining power at household and community levels, better child nutrition and lower levels of gender-based violence.
Access to safe water and sanitation and sound management of freshwater ecosystems are at the very core of sustainable development. This is the aim of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which includes approaches to water management supported by international cooperation, capacity building and stakeholder participation.<p></p><p></p>Indicator 6.4.1 has been designed to assess the economic and social use of water resources in terms of the value added when they are used in different sectors of the economy.
This river basin overview describes the state of the water resources and water use, as well as the state of agricultural water management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin. The aim of this report is to describe the particularities of this transboundary river basin and the problems met in the development of the water resources, and irrigation in particular.
This country profile describes the state of the water resources and water use, as well as the state of agricultural water management in India. The aim of this report is to describe the particularities of the country and the problems met in the development of the water resources, and irrigation in particular.
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