Nearly two thousand years ago, in the orange groves of China, farmers came up with a new way to do battle with insect pests. Beetles, mites, and stinkbugs plagued their trees. Farmers would release ants among the trees, and the ants would dine on the uninvited guests. The farmers knew which species of ants to use – how to breed the ants – and the ideal time of year to put them to work.

Today, near Wuhan on the Yangtse River, 1,000 kilometres south of Beijing, Dr. Zhao Jingzhao, President of the University of Hubei, is continuing this tradition by finding ways to control cotton pests with their natural enemies. Thanks to his work, cotton farmers throughout Hubei now use fewer pesticides and produce better yields, therefore improving both their standard of living and their health.

In 1988, the Gansu Research Institute for Water Conservancy (GRIWAC) began a project designed to research, demonstrate and promote rainwater harvesting (RWH) in the Gansu Province of China. The project was so successful that by the end of 1994, about 40,000 rural households had built their own RWH systems and by the end of 2001, there were 2.2 million newly built storage tanks using GRIWAC’s methods. By 2001 these new techniques had made the irrigation of 236,000 ha of land possible while at the same time, those benefiting from this domestic water project had increased to nearly two million people. Thanks to this project crop yields have increased by roughly 40 percent in an average year and even more in a dry year.

Local knowledge is an important tool for conserving biodiversity and is closely linked to local environmental systems. The accumulated experiences, skills and values of a local environment can go on to guide sustainable resource use. The implementation of the Participatory Plant Breeding Project in Guangxi has attained a remarkable achievement by putting local indigenous knowledge into practice.

Modern industrialised farming systems rely on mono cropping. This type of farming has resulted in a rapid decline of agro-biodiversity in China. In order to reverse this, agricultural systems that encourage farmers to plant traditional varieties are being encouraged by both scientists and farmers alike. This is an important complement to ex-situ conservation (collecting, handling and management of germplasm 'off-site' - see box below) of crop varieties by plant breeders or scientists.

The following story is set in the district of Yuexi within the Anhui Province of China, historically considered a region of national poverty. Through conversion to organic farming, local producers have been able to both increase capacity and protect their environment thus improving their family’s security.

"Every body has praised me for my work" reminisces Chunmun standing in his farm, bubbling with enthusiasm, eager to tell his success story. He exudes confidence as he explains how he made the informed choice to invest in an innovative technology that has helped him regain both his pride and his confidence. His new found dignity and economic independence means that he is no longer at the mercy of the “Thakurs” (big farmer) to irrigate his land.

Today, many villages in India are facing severe water scarcity. Erratic rainfall and poor soil and water management, including relentless ground water extraction has led to cycles of droughts and ongoing water scarcity. As a result, there is renewed interest in rehabilitating the small, traditional water harvesting and irrigation systems that have existed in India for centuries.

Suffering increasingly negative impacts on health and income after regular pesticide use, 530 farmers in 14 villages in the Parvatagiri area of India’s Warangal district have begun to farm organically. The advice to move away from using toxins in food production came from a local NGO called Modern Architects of Rural India (MARI). MARI introduced local farmers to the tried and tested system of ‘non-pesticide management’.

Symptoms of acute toxic poisoning in farm workers and ill effects due to long term pesticide exposures are a common phenomenon in India, with abnormalities in new born babies found in many villages. Chemical pesticides including Monocrotophos and Methyl Parathion, which are categorized as extremely hazardous by the W.H.O, are sold to farmers without restriction.

In an effort to deal with this problem, farmers in the Penta Srirampuram village in Andhra Pradesh have, over the last 3 years, successfully eliminated pesticides from their paddy fields. This is the story about how these farmers learnt how to cultivate without the use of toxic chemicals, controlling ‘problem’ pests by releasing specific beneficial insects onto their crops.

Paddy cultivation and duck farming have always been closely interlinked in the Trivandrum district of Kerala, the southeast state of India. However, the challenges of development have increasingly encroached on the sustainability of this practice. This is the story of how local farmers have employed new tricks to keep duck farming profitable.

Chronic water shortage meant that the Raju family could grow enough food for just 8 months of the year – for the remaining four they were forced to buy scraps of food from the market.

Ranganathan, known to his friends as Ranga, his 11-year-old son, his wife Kamlamma and their hired labourer are hard at work putting in more stakes for their cucumber crop.

The family has recently entered into a buyback contract with a local pickles company that supplies quality hybrid seeds and then guarantees to buy back the produce. This year Ranga is expecting a record harvest that will net him in a record 25,000 Rupees, of which Rs.20,000 is profit. This excellent return is way beyond his family’s highest hopes and allows them to radically revise their plans for the future. None of this would have been possible if Ranga had not bought into an innovative scheme that supplies farmers with small-scale KB Drip, irrigation systems. This drip system allows farmers to water their crops all year round.

Here we investigate how a network of Indonesian rice producers developed a secure market for their product.

Farmer Ibu Napsiah succeeded in raising her income after discovering how to grow vegetables organically.

A year ago, the ecology of forestland in the highlands of Pangalengan, Indonesia was under such threat that a government ban on vegetable growing was implemented. This decision led to more than 5000 people being denied their livelihoods. In response, farmers in the villages surrounding the forest decided to revitalize an already existing farmer’s group and to initiate a project called the “Friends of the forest”. Their aim was to find ways to conserve the forest while continuing to gain their livelihoods from it.

Fruit farmer Mrs Farzana Panhwar, based near Hydearabad, Pakistan, has written to farmingsolutions to explain how and why she produces ecologically sound low-cost compost by utilising ‘on farm waste’. She uses an environmentally friendly way to produce valuable fertiliser necessary to keep her 100-acre (42 hectare) fruit orchard productive.

Fruit farmer Mrs Farzana Panhwar, based near Hyderabad, Pakistan, has written to farmingsolutions detailing successful integrated pest management solutions she now uses on her 100-acre (42 hectare) fruit orchard.

In the hilly communities of Western Batangas in the Philippines, farming families depend primarily on the sale of livestock as a source of income. A readily available fodder supply is consequently an issue of high concern. Local cattle and goat raisers have traditionally relied on indigenous fodder trees and shrubs as animal feed, but the combination of slash and burn agriculture and the consequent overgrazing during the land’s fallow periods has led to damaging nutrient deficiencies in the soil. Discovering a sustainable solution became crucial.

In Thailand, rice is the staple food and one of the country’s biggest exports. However, rice farmers have seen falling returns from agro-chemical farming and almost 70 per cent of them are in debt. Estimates suggest that about 30 per cent of the rice-farming population is malnourished. In order to address these issues, one of the farmingsolutions.org partners, Oxfam UK, is working with groups of Thai farmers on their sustainable livelihoods programme.

The enormous cost to farmers and the environment of the over-use of pesticides has once again been proven. A new project has encouraged millions of Vietnamese rice farmers to reduce their use of pesticides.

Following several food poisoning scandals in Vietnam, both consumers and the government are becoming increasingly aware of food safety problems and the damage caused by pesticide residues. This has led to an increased interest in producing “safe” food and the formation of “safe” vegetable farmers’ cooperatives.

These cooperatives mainly sell their produce to intermediaries and company canteens. Farmers who are members stand a good chance of being paid a higher price for their “healthier” products. This is a promising development, but much more coordination between farmers, assemblers, wholesalers and retailers is still needed to increase the demand for safe vegetables at all levels in society.