The increasing demand for land and natural resources brings diverse users into competition. There is a clear need to secure legitimate rights and develop effective processes to resolve disputes without conflicts. Natural resources degradation, which is an increasing challenge in many Feed the Future regions, can be addressed by integrating environmental management practices that boost agricultural productivity, increase incomes and enhance resilience to drought and other environmental shocks.

Brazilian police have arrested a priest in the Amazon who championed the rights of smallholders against powerful agricultural interests.

Father Amaro Lopes is the best-known follower of the American-born nun, Dorothy Stang, who was murdered in 2005 in a killing orchestrated by landowners during a dispute that continues today.

In the fight for land and to protect the environment, communities around the world are struggling against governments, companies and criminal gangs

MUMBAI, Feb 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Last week's killing of Cambodian forest defenders, and the recent shooting of Indonesian farmers, show the increasing involvement of state forces in quelling dissent against agribusiness, campaigners said.

Small farmers plant a more diverse variety of crops, making them more resilient to climate change

MUMBAI, Dec 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India's small farmers are better equipped than large landowners to deal with climate change, but need more support to find innovative ways to minimise the impacts of higher temperatures, uneven rainfall, floods and droughts, analysts said.

The third-generation farmers question alleged discrepancy in issuance of permits among different parties to operate on the land.

Land rights defenders from 29 countries call for greater vigilance in ensuring governments comply with laws

MUMBAI, Sept 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dozens of land rights defenders from 29 countries have written to the United Nations to draw attention to the increasing violence they face from states and corporations, and calling for greater vigilance in ensuring governments comply with laws.

Residents of low cost housing can design their communities better than an architect, says legendary planner and designer Balkrishna Doshi

LONDON, Aug 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Balkrishna Doshi began his illustrious career as India was born, and many of the architect's most influential projects in the intervening 70 years have involved building almost nothing.

Colombia's leftist FARC rebels seek political rebirth on Sunday as they move to transform into a party to seek elected office after disarming to end a half-century war.

About 1,000 delegates from the freshly demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will launch a founding congress to choose their political representatives.

They will choose a name for the party and candidates to run in next year's general elections.

Global population is projected for a rise from the present tally of about 7.1 billion to over 9 billion around 2050. This translates into an annual demand of over one billion extra tonnes of extra cereals and 200 million tonnes of livestock products, which means more aggressive agricultural expansion. Is this a problem? There are two ways to view it: we will need to produce more food and more importantly, produce more nutritious food. The latter has lately been a key challenge in the global food sector: eradicate hunger with high-quality food (Sustainable Development Goal 2).

Civil Society Organisations in Edo State, under the umbrella of Coalition for Protection of the Environment, recently staged a protest against land grabbing and deforestation. Adibe Emenyonu who was there, reports

Bose Eruanga is a peasant farmer from Uzalla, Owan West Local Government Area of Edo State. Eruanga, as a widow with six children depends on the produce from the farmlands in her community to train her children.