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In Senegal's Bousra Ndawène village, pastoralists from Senegal, Gambia, Mali, and Mauritania travel annually along a 110-km transhumance corridor, seeking fresh pastures for their livestock. Babacar Ndaw, a local farmer and breeder, helps manage resources, balancing the needs of both pastoralists and locals. The Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS) has improved infrastructure, animal health services, and water access, reducing conflicts and supporting over 350,000 pastoralists in Senegal. PRAPS aims to assist more than a million pastoralists by 2027, preserving pastoralism while ensuring sustainable resource use.
With IFAD's support, rural farmers in North Africa and the Middle East are improving their marketing skills, boosting incomes, and gaining recognition for their high-quality products.
For Saeeda, a coffee farmer in Taiz, Yemen, her work is a legacy. Growing up on her family’s farm she learned to care for coffee trees from her parents. Now, as she tends to her family’s 8,400-square-metre plot, her love for the land and dedication to Yemen’s coffee heritage drive her amidst challenges from climate change. With rainfall declining, coffee farmers face significant hardships. To help, the United Nations Development Programme (), in partnership with the Public Works Project and funded by the World Bank, has built rainwater-harvesting tanks in the region. These tanks have helped farmers like Saeeda maintain their crops during droughts. Saeeda dreams of a future where Yemeni youth continue the coffee legacy, encouraging them to recognize its economic and cultural value.
ąó´ˇ°żâ€™s helps farmers restore land and grow crops to combat desertification and poverty.
Ahmad Al Nasser credits his success to self-belief and helping others overcome challenges. As a facilitator of a Farmer Field School in rural Hama, Syria, he has lived with a physical disability due to polio since childhood. With over 25 years of experience, he completed his education at the Veterinary Technical Institute and became a certified technician in bovine artificial insemination. Now, he works with 25 cattle keepers, sharing knowledge to improve livestock production. Under Ahmad’s guidance, local farmers achieved significant results, processing their own dairy products and increasing profits by bypassing middlemen. They also started producing organic compost and fodder for their cows.
Esther Munani Kyalo, a mother of three from Miambani ward in Kitui County, Kenya, has changed her routine over the past few months. Every Tuesday, she joins around 35 other women at the Kavakaky Farmer Field School to breed chicks in a new poultry house. Under a large mango tree, the community gathers to discuss and improve their husbandry practices. In Kenya's arid and semi-arid regions, livestock production, including beekeeping and chicken brooding, is vital for family income. Transitioning to commercial farming can improve incomes and reduce rural poverty, and Farmer Field Schools are key to this change. The Food and Agriculture Organization () supported , reaching nearly 300,000 farmers in eight years.
Global food production can feed everyone, yet hunger persists, affecting one in 11 people worldwide and one in five people in Africa. Our goal towards Zero Hunger by 2030 is off track, with nearly 600 million people likely to be chronically undernourished in six years. We require transformative changes and bigger investment in agriculture, closing urban-rural divides, and building efficient, sustainable, and resilient food systems. Our UN specialized agencies - , , , and , among others - are there to help in the field.
The video will showcase impactful projects in sustainable agriculture and land management, emphasizing the leadership of women and youth in shaping policies for NENA's sustainable development.
We can already see the effects of climate change - global temperatures are rising, extreme weather events are intensifying, severe wildfires are becoming more frequent and water scarcity is worsening. focuses on making food and farming systems sustainable, fair, and strong enough to handle climate change. The UN's food and agriculture agency works with countries to improve climate policies and plans, supports farming-focused solutions, and helps countries access funding for climate-friendly projects. FAO helps countries adopt better farming practices, create new policies, and use new tools to reduce greenhouse gases and adapt to climate changes. It also works directly with communities to restore farmland, protect forests, improve water use, and promote eco-friendly farming, aiming to include farmers, women, youth, and Indigenous groups in all efforts.
Martha Adjorlolo’s beehives in Donkorkrom, Ghana, are both her livelihood and passion. Despite starting beekeeping only a year ago, she is dedicated to sustainable practices, using local methods like top bar hives and natural repellents such as lemongrass oil. Her recent training by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations () emphasized the need to minimize chemical and antimicrobial use for the health of bees, food safety, and the environment. The workshop highlighted the dangers of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), which occurs when microorganisms become resistant to treatments, resulting in increased illness and mortality in various species.
The Degaan Bile project demonstrates the power of collaboration and innovation in empowering Somali farmers to adapt to climate change and build a sustainable future.
Bodo and Sanda are reinventing entrepreneurship in Madagascar, creating jobs and empowering youth through IFAD's Agribusiness Hubs.
“Tarakama” is a traditional nomadic pastoral lifestyle practiced by Azerbaijani communities who move with the seasons. Mahammad Bayramov, from Aghdam, has lived this way since childhood, traveling with his family’s livestock. Each year, Mahammad’s family and five others move their herds to the mountains, where collaboration helps them manage the animals more effectively. Raised with livestock, Mahammad and his community relied on them for income, leading to the formation of Eko-Süd (Eco-Milk), a cooperative focused on milk and dairy production. However, they faced significant challenges due to manual, labor-intensive processes that limited their profits. In 2023, a partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization () and the Government of Azerbaijan provided essential tools, including feed grinders and a dairy processing facility. This support allowed Eco-Milk to grow to 23 members, enabling efficient production of cheese and butter sought after in Baku and beyond.
Aishagul Duganova, a 48-year-old mother of three from Koram, Kazakhstan, finds hope in her new greenhouse amid family health issues and financial struggles. After her husband's injury and her elderly parents-in-law's illnesses forced her to abandon work, Aishagul faced overwhelming debt from medical expenses. Her situation changed when her sister-in-law connected her to a greenhouse training program funded by the Global Environmental Facility through the Food and Agriculture Organization pof ±¬ÁĎą«Éç () project . This initiative aims to empower rural women by providing them with skills in sustainable farming, enabling Aishagul to cultivate food independently.