Dietary diversity has been widely used as a proxy indicator for micronutrient adequacy. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Rwanda, women are at high risk of inadequate micronutrient intake resulting from poorly diversified diets. This study was conducted to examine the factors associated with women's dietary diversity, with emphasis on homestead production diversity and market access in the Northern Province of Rwanda. A cross-sectional design was used, involving 606 women aged 18-49 years. Linear regression analyses were performed to examine the association between various factors and women's dietary diversity. Results show that 84% of the sample households raised at least one livestock species. Seventy-one percent of the households had no agricultural land. Eighty percent of those without land had a homestead garden on which they grew food crops, mainly vegetables and fruit trees. The average crop species was 2.3. On average, women consumed 3 out of 9 food groups. The homestead production diversity score was positively associated with women's dietary diversity score (beta = 0.16, p < 0.001). Women's dietary diversity score was negatively associated with distance from the household to the nearest market (beta = -0.08, p = 0.027) and household food insecurity (beta = -0.06, p < 0.001). Maternal education (p < 0.001), household wealth index (p < 0.05), and ownership of more than 2.5 acres compared to being without land (p < 0.05) were associated with women's dietary diversity score. The dietary diversity of women could be enhanced through interventions that promote the diversity of livestock and crop species produced through homestead production. Potential interventions to explore may include integrated farming systems that combine small livestock and crop production utilising improved livestock breeds and high-quality seeds and planting materials of high-yielding varieties of fruits and vegetables, along with rainwater harvesting to facilitate small-scale irrigation. The impact of such interventions on women's dietary diversity can be further reinforced by parallel programmes aimed at improving women's education and the socioeconomic status of households.

The aim of this thesis is to identify how forest management in Tanzania can contribute to global climate change mitigation while improving livelihoods of forest-dependent communities.

A mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is meant to slow increases of atmospheric CO₂ while channelling funds to developing countries. In Tanzania, pioneering work in participatory forest management (PFM) has promoted local-level control over forest resource use. The purpose of this study is to contribute to a linkage between REDD and PFM that maximises benefits for communities, forests and global climate.

Three PFM projects with relation to REDD have been studied, primarily using semi-structured interviews with villagers, district officials, project facilitators, researchers, consultants and policy-makers. Analysis consists of comparing experiences at different levels and putting them in the theoretical context of climate change and forest conservation.

The study identifies several issues: local and central government institutions cannot ensure equitable benefit sharing; cross-sectoral co-ordination to address fundamental causes of the problems is lacking; participation of local communities is not satisfactory.

However, the process is at an early stage. Current activities will hopefully contribute to a future framework that properly addresses these and other obstacles. If this is accomplished, PFM and REDD can complement each other in a positive way.

Other land property forms than the private are often conceived as residues of the past, residues that paradoxically seem never to pass away. An example is the form of semi-communal land ownership of the agricultural communities of Chile’s Region IV. Using sociological and historical research methods, this study explores the origin and the emergence of this agrarian form during the last four centuries, through the community Canela Baja and the neighbouring latifundium El Totoral, as a contrasting case.

Having on one hand, the form of communal land as the common denominator, we have on the other the social aspects resulting from particular histories of the form. Therefore, a distinction between imposed and spontaneous forms is introduced. Confronting the case study with research results from other socio-political and material conditions, the study suggest that while some of the present communal ownership forms are the outcome of political decisions, others are of long historical processes. The imposed forms are not so much communities; rather reserves or homelands.

Differentiating it from both private property and the so called “tragedy of the commons“, communal land ownership is conceived as an institution of its own which in Chile shares the same historical origin in colonial land grants as private property. Since they have kept their territorial integrity permanently in an undivided form, the study suggest that these agrarian collectives have historically avoided their conversion into minifundium, being thus a resource management solution, which acted as a brake to land fragmentation. Thus, the communal form represents not only another historical pattern of development, but also another way of organising ownership and production than both the latifundium and minifundium.

This essay investigates the development of the cash crop coffee. It gives a historical background of the good and shows how it developed to be one of the most important and traded community in the world. Tanzania’s position and how it came to that position in the world market is shown. During a three week field study in the Babati District in 2004, some interviews with coffee farmers were made. These interviews were made with interpreters and were gathered with the help from the LAMP project. The connection to Swedish coffee consumption is also shown. One of the results was that if farmers move on to grow organic coffee they could get a larger profit. There is also an increasing demand after organic coffee in countries as Sweden so LAMP instructs the farmers in Babati to start growing organic coffee. Another result was that the farmers in the Babati district intercropped their coffee with other crops to spread the risks and lower the dependence to the world coffee market.

Överingress

För hundra år sedan drevs ett familjenära jordbruk i Sverige. I takt med stigande konkurrens har många gårdar tvingats till valet att lägga ner eller öka sin produktion. De småskaliga jordbruk som för tankarna till Astrid Lindgrens böcker om Emil i Lönneberga och Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn finns knappt kvar längre.

Idag producerar Europas bönder mer mat än vi någonsin behöver. EU:s jordbruksstöd kostar mycket pengar, och leder till en överproduktion samt en snedvriden konkurrens. Och bland riksdagspartierna råder en bred enighet om att avreglera många av EU:s jordbruksstöd och ändra deras inriktning.

Denna artikelserie belyser en ny produktion inom jordbruket. Bönderna ska få betalt för att producera öppna landskap, bevara en biologisk mångfald och sköta om vårt kulturarv på landsbygden. Frågan är: Vad ska vi använda framtidens jordbruk till?