Darshi Jayasinghe used to work as a production supervisor, but chose to leave her career to focus on raising her family. While adjusting to life as a homemaker, she found a new purpose: growing her own vegetables right in her backyard. Darshi started cultivating beans, okra, tomatoes, and chilies, turning her home garden into both […]
In the face of hardship, resilience often shines the brightest. For Chamila Weerasingha of Sri Lanka, this resilience took the form of creativity, persistence, and an unwavering commitment to her family’s well-being. Chamila began her small food business to supplement her family’s income. For a time, things were going well—until the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With lockdowns keeping […]
In Pothuhara, Sri Lanka, I.H. Karunawathi, a dedicated woman farmer, has built her family’s livelihood through years of hard work in home gardening. Working tirelessly on her own, she tends to her garden, cultivates crops, and sells her produce to sustain her household. Karunawathi received support from the Assuring Resiliency of Family Farmers (ARISE-Farmers) program through SANASA, the national […]
In April 2021, the Kraing Leav Samaki Agricultural Cooperative loaned USD 30,000 from the ARISE-Farmers program to purchase organic rice and conventional rice from their members. With this amount, the Cooperative was able to buy 170 metric tons of organic rice (consisting of 110 tons of Romdul and 60 tons of red Jasmine rice) and […]
INTRODUCTION TO AGRI-FOREST ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUNG FARMERS April to June 2022 THEME Young Women and Men Farmers As Advocates for Sustainable, Resilient, Gender Sensitive Agri-Forest-Based Livelihoods: Young Farmers for Farms in Forests, Forests in Farms INTRODUCTION Enterprise development, value chains and market linkages are terms that are increasingly being used when discussing […]
At a side event during the International Journalism Festival held on 9 April 2022 in Perugia, Italy, AFA Secretary-General Esther Penunia made a plea to the media. “The media has big power to influence public opinion. We hope the media uses this power to highlight the family farmers’ role as solution providers in making our […]
Better food systems are critical to building a future with improved health, equality, and peace, with rich biodiversity and ecosystems, and with resilient and empowered people. Therefore, there must be a critical shift from a food security focus to food systems thinking: thinking about food, people, and the planet, that requires multi-level approaches with multi-stakeholders. […]
The Regional Action Plan for strengthening family farming in South Asia has been elaborated through a participatory and multi-stakeholder approach in the framework of the UN Decade of Family Farming and in close collaboration with SAARC Agriculture Center, the Asia Farmer Association for Sustainable Rural Development and the International Cooperative Alliance – Asia Pacific. Consultations […]
