The Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has published a working paper on engaging local farming knowledge through a rights-based approach to agricultural development.
The paper argues that agricultural development efforts should support the integration of different knowledge systems in various areas and sectors of agriculture to achieve sustainable development objectives.
November 2014: The Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has published a working paper on engaging local farming knowledge through a rights-based approach to agricultural development. The paper argues that agricultural development efforts should support the integration of different knowledge systems in various areas and sectors of agriculture to achieve sustainable development objectives.
The paper, titled ‘Territorial Development and Local Knowledge Systems: Engaging local farming knowledge through a right-based approach to agricultural development,’ stresses the need to include local knowledge and knowledge systems and their users in the development of food security given the significant contribution they make to food security and sustainability. The paper also underscores the need to ensure small-scale farmers are enabled with agro-ecological production methods to ensure future food supplies.
The document begins with a discussion on basic concepts around knowledge, land and territory, and illustrates various ways of thinking about knowledge system processes in relation to agricultural stakeholder rights. The paper also underscores the need for innovative and inclusive participatory processes for engaging local knowledge users in order to diversify knowledge use and support sustainable natural resource management.
More specifically, the publication addresses: local knowledge systems; rights-based approaches to rural development and food security; self-determination and sovereignty of local communities; and creation, loss and adaptation of knowledge and knowledge systems. It explores the role of energy in local knowledge systems and local knowledge systems and land, including framing FAO’s work on territorial development.
Regarding linking local knowledge systems and natural resource governance, the paper discusses: participation, dialogue and negotiation for sustainable territorial development; land rights and local knowledge systems in a territorial development context; the recognition and respect for local knowledge, traditional values and cultural diversity in a national context; and the conservation and integration of knowledge systems through a rights-based approach to territorial development.
The paper then provides on-the-ground examples of effective, inclusive and participatory territorial development. [Publication: Territorial Development: Engaging local farming knowledge through a right-based approach to agricultural development] [FAO Land Resources Website]