CALL FOR PAPERS

2^nd FAMILY FARMING LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH IN THE PACIFIC CONFERENCE

NOUMÉA, NEW-CALEDONIA, 18-20 MARCH 2025

FAMILY FARMING, LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH IN SMALL ISLANDS, COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES

Small islands, countries and territories are the most vulnerable areas to global changes such as socio-economic transitions, climate change or sanitary risks. Small-scale farming including crops cultivation, breeding, fishing, gathering and hunting known as “family farming” ensures not only food production for families, but also fundamental social, environmental and cultural functions. Family farming represents 90% of farms in the world and produces 80% of the world's food in value. The lifestyle of family farmers embodies the concept of “from garden to fork”, with families enjoying good health because of their active lifestyle through gardening or fishing and eating garden produce. In these specific contexts, knowledge and practices regarding family farming lifestyle and health are co-build both in families, in communities and in schools. However, the environment is subject to rapid transformations, which affect urban, peri-urban and rural spaces as well as natural environments. These socio-economic and socio-cultural transformations have major consequences on food systems and regional livelihoods to local specificities and varieties of consumption, limiting the achievement of a healthy diet and influencing decisions about what to eat in small island communities. Similarly, industrialization and mechanization along with limited physical activity in daily life have greatly reduced regular activity, influencing human health. As a result, there is an urgent need to have a comprehensive understanding of family farming and the associated lifestyle to provide solutions to the most vulnerable populations in the world and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular "zero hunger" (SDG2) and “good health and well-being” (SDG3).

This conference aims to:

1) Share with hosted worldwide researchers who works on family farming, - ie crops cultivation, breeding, fishing, gathering and hunting -; lifestyle and health in Small Islands, Countries and Territories all over the world and share their research advances for Pacific researchers;

2) Sum up four years of research innovation and staff exchanges done during the FALAH project with original contributions from Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.

The presentation can be done in French and in English.

Websites: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/873185

                 https://falah.unc.nc/

Keywords: family farming, farmers, fishers, rural livelihoods, lifestyle, health, agrobiodiversity, economics, sustainability, nutrition, food security, food system, foreign aid policies, private financial flows, Oceania, education, traditional knowledge, migrations, gender equity.

This call for papers is open to multidisciplinary contributions on the following themes:

1- WHAT PLACE AND WHAT STAKES FOR FAMILY FARMING IN SMALL ISLANDS?

Agricultural and fishing systems that produce food from the land and sea in small island states and territories rely heavily on family farming, primarily for local consumption. Major coastal marine resources include reef fish, shellfish, crustaceans, sometimes snappers, and pelagic fish. These fisheries require various knowledge, engines, and diverse marine management policies. Major crops include yams, taro, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas and various tropical fruits and vegetables. These crops require different water management techniques adapted to local conditions. However, lifestyle changes (such as migration and labor reorganization), land scarcity, and emerging climate and environmental issues are challenging these rich and diverse farming, fishing and hunting practices. In addition, agricultural and livestock production for local and export markets (such as kava, cocoa, spices, sugar cane and cattle) and fishing activities are affected by climate change. Soil changes, high water consumption, pest and disease pressures but also marine heatwaves threaten the financial stability of dependent households and countries that already have structural trade deficits.

This axis proposes to focus on:

A)      Family farming in islands territories:

Opportunities, strength that already exists but the need for continuing and rapid adaptations of practices and products.

What are the land and sea developments and management options? What are the trade-offs complementarities and synergies / tensions and conflicts between different production systems? What are the relationships and links with other uses: economical, residential or landscape? What is the contribution of family farming systems to organization of space, from the farm scale to the catchment area? Landscape or agro-industrial activity basin?

B)      Family farming facing agro-ecological stakes:

Against a backdrop of climate change, scarcity of natural resources and energy challenges, what agricultural and food production, protection and processing technologies are needed for Family farming? What types of funding are needed to encourage the agro-ecological transition and a better consideration of pluriactivity including sea and land activities? What types of specialized or diversified production, based on crops, livestock or aquaculture, should be developed to involve Family farmers/fishers and hunters of small islands as effectively as possible in global food security?

C)      Family farmers/fishers/hunters as actors for the future of Pacific Islands territories:

Which objects and methods account for Family farming? Do “production system” and “activity system” approaches enable us to take better account of the interactions and interdependencies both within farms and in their relations with their economic, social and natural environment?

2- FOOD SYSTEMS, LIFESTYLES AND HEALTH

The rapid socio-economic changes and the globalization process have considerably disrupted local agrifood systems, as well as main components of lifestyle that are physical activity and nutrition behaviors. Migration flows generated internally by rapid urbanization and externally by the search for international rents have a significant impact on the available labor force in rural areas by offering alternative sources of monetary income. The improvement of human capital (education) directs people towards less physically demanding jobs, reduces the attractiveness of agricultural jobs, which are generally much less remunerative. Among the large drivers of food systems, the nutrition transition has been characterized by a decrease in subsistence agricultural production leading to a less physical active life and an increase availability and consumption of industrial food products that both significantly affect health of populations. Poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles are associated with overweight, obesity and non-communicable disease and therefore ways of assessing and monitoring the changes that happen overtime are required to co-design effective interventions to address population health. Such evolution also has serious consequences on the purchasing power of populations and food security. This is particularly the case following the acceleration of the globalization process, which has generated a strong increase in interdependencies and systemic risks, as shown by the recent Covid-19 crisis.

Therefore, this axis proposes to focus on:

A)      Food systems transitions and agrifood systems: how family farming, fishing, hunting and their lifestyle can contribute to a sustainable transition in small islands countries and territories?

What is a sustainable food system in small islands? How can we improve the contribution of family farms and small-scale fisheries to the food systems of small islands?

B)      Lifestyle: nutrition, physical activity and obesity:

How are individual lifestyles at home, in families, in schools and in communities. What is the influence of social, spatial and temporal dimensions on lifestyle? What is the relation between lifestyle and the socio-economic transition in the Pacific region?

C)      Social and gender issues:

   How is farming organized on small islands? Between family solidarity and public solidarity, family farming acts as a social safety net: how can this function be enhanced? What role for women? What future for young people in the organization of family farms? What kind of intergenerational transfers? What kind of family forms are needed as people become more mobile?

D)      Remittances, migrations and work in the family farming sector:

What are the induced transformations in the family workforce, in the family farming and fishing practices, and in the diets and food habits?

3- WHAT PATHS FOR CO-CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGES IN THE LAND AND SEA PRODUCTION PRACTICES AND FOOD SYSTEMS OF SMALL ISLANDS

The context of insularity provides Pacific populations with a greater vulnerability to food, socio-economic and climate challenges than populations living on the continents. More recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the limits of the current economic model. The island territories found themselves isolated from the rest of the world; they have been greatly disrupted. Cut off from the outside world, the populations have experienced difficulties of supply. Indeed, the pandemic has revealed food insecurity but also the resilience capacities of island societies.

This axis proposes to focus on:

A)      What place is given to local knowledge in fishing, farming, hunting, gathering, raising animals for food, food preparation, food preservation, management of diseases and injuries, interpretation of phenomena, the creation of clothing, making traditional tools, the construction of shelters, the manufacture of instruments, the orientation and the displacement, the understanding of a language, the practice of an vernacular language practices, and how is this knowledge learned and taught? How do various actors perceive this kind of knowledge?

B)      How do local knowledge and the knowledge produced by science or institutions fit together, clash or intermingle? What are the levers that facilitate the mobilization of these different types of knowledge, or even the co-creation of new forms of mixed knowledge? What are the obstacles to this co-creation?

C)      What place for extension and advisory services for family farmers/fishers/hunters in small islands?

D)      What place for digital tools in co-construction of knowledge in Family Farming and Lifestyles?

4- WHAT FOREIGN AID AND PUBLIC POLICIES FOR FAMILY FARMING IN SMALL ISLANDS?

Public policies, along with foreign aid and private actors, play a major role in the development process of Pacific Island Countries and Territories. This is particularly the case in the agriculture and education sectors, with the support of the media. In the past decades, international foreign aid policies have contributed to rehabilitating community management of common resources and the place of local knowledge. However, the articulation of different levels of governance as well as different modes of regulation poses significant difficulties. Furthermore, the so-called "traditional" practices and their underlying knowledge are likely to be considerably affected by the acceleration of global changes, which make adaptation urgent for greater resilience.

Therefore, this axis proposes to focus on:

A)      What is the role of development aid policies and private financial flows in maintaining and strengthening family farming?

B)      Climate change adaptation, public and aid policies and family farming: what is the place of family farming in nature-based solutions and adaptation projects?

C)      Climate and decarbonisation objectives and their constraints on family farmers (workforce, land, etc.). How to achieve energetic autonomy and resilience?

D)      Liberalisation and financialisation of commodity and food markets: With urbanization, globalization and rapid socio-economic changes, what new markets do the towns and cities of the small islands represent for the agriculture of tomorrow? What is the relationship between family farming and these new markets? What are the challenges posed to family farming by the seed trade and the patenting of living organisms? How can we meet them?

PUBLICATION OPPORTUNITIES:

Presentations of the conference can be submitted for publication in the FALAH project collection in Open Research Europe journal: https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/collections/family-farming-lifestyle-health/about

Note that for FALAH members, the European Commission will cover all article-processing charges centrally.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:

FALAH senior researchers

CONTACT

For paper submission, please send your proposal at the two following addresses:  falahconf2025@unc.nc

The first page of your submission must contain the title, author(s) and contact information of the corresponding author. Please note that the extended abstract should not exceed 3 pages and must include:

- the submission title

- the author(s) and corresponding author(s)

- the objectives of the paper, the methods used and the main results obtained;

- selected bibliographic references (10 max)

For all other questions, please contact the organizing committee:  falahconf2025@unc.nc

TIMELINE AND PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION

Deadline for submission: 15/11/2024

NEW DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION : 29/11/2024

Decisions: 20/12/2024

Submissions and registration by email: falahconf2025@unc.nc

The beginning of the subject line of your email: SUBMISSION FALAH FINAL CONFERENCE – Theme (1/2/3/4).

Please find bellow the call and submission papers.

Call and submission papers