This magazine from Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (ILEIA) focuses on small-scale farming, which according to ILEIA, is a major part of rural livelihoods and contributes significantly to developing economies. Its contents attempt to find technical and social options open to farmers who seek to improve productivity and income in an ecologically sound way.

LEISA magazine - an acronym for low external input and sustainable agriculture - includes in this issue its regular sections containing: new books, networking, sources, and an editorial. Its articles have a focus on documentation as a knowledge building process. According to its editors: "The articles in this issue show that the purpose of documentation is not only descriptive: the process needs to examine closely what results and impacts are achieved in a given case, and why. Going through this process is an opportunity to learn and to discover interesting and useful links, opinions and learning points. These can then lead to adaptations of the activities and feed into planning, whether planning large projects or cropping patterns on small scale farms... Whatever the methodology or approach, the importance of a documentation process lies in the opportunities for learning that it provides. These come out of the final product which is shared, just as much as of the process itself."

Contents include:

• Articles on principles documentation, including a LEISA contribution to the systematisation of documentation;
• Cases studies of documentation from diverse projects and countries, e.g. Brazil, India;
• Articles on methods such as video, photography, writing for donors, and recording plant uses as a resource;
• Measuring sustainability;
• Constructing innovation histories and strengthening innovation networks;
• Vaccinating small ruminants; and
• Processing experiences and hearing from individuals through the media.

All articles are available in both PDF format and HTML format from the Table of Contents.

Click here to access archives of LEISA magazine.