Food and agriculture
Although the cornerstone of most developing countries' economies, agricultural production in many parts of the world is carried out on a small-scale by farmers and pastoralists with little income or natural resources, making their lives precarious and vulnerable.
Food production
Practical Action's work with small scale farmers and pastoralists aims to help them increase their food production capacity, to achieve sustainable livelihoods in the context of a rapidly changing global food system.
Traditional crop and animal combinations can be adapted to increase productivity, when the biological, land and labour resources are efficiently used. This enhances not only yields and the food security of farmers, but also the agricultural diversity and environmental integrity of the production system.
Practical Action's expertise in food production includes:
- training farmers in agricultural techniques, such as terracing and wadi cultivation
- constructing dams and training farmers in rainwater conservation
- working with farmers to improve irrigation, including community construction projects to build reservoirs, canals, and gravity-fed irrigation systems
- developing alternative techniques to cope with land that is regularly flooded, such as floating gardens, sandbar cropping and rice-fish culture
- training community extensionists to provide advice and support services on an ongoing basis beyond the life of any project
Agroprocessing
Agriculture alone is not always able to provide a reliable livelihood for the growing populations in many developing countries. Alternative or additional income generating opportunities are needed to support the millions of poor families who can no longer support their livelihoods from the land alone.
Agroprocessing - turning primary agricultural products into other commodities for market - has the potential to provide those opportunities.
Practical Action's agroprocessing projects aim to increase income and access to food for the poor, by establishing small-scale, appropriate and sustainable processing businesses that are flexible, require little capital investment and can be carried out in the home without the need for sophisticated or expensive equipment.
Practical Action's expertise in agroprocessing includes:
Further information on food processing can be found in the Practical Action journal Food Chain.
Practical Answers, Practical Action's technical information service, produces a wide range of Technical Briefs, practical fact-sheets on many different aspects of food production and processing.
